FIA / FIM European Finals
Santa Pod Raceway, 3rd-6th September 2015

Sunday


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Pro Stock racer Magnus Pettersson ran 6.693, 7.071, 6.673 and 6.677 to qualify fourth. He seemed to have a good handle on the track but pushed the tree too hard against a quicker Thomas Lindström and red-lit in round one. He finishes the season in fourth place in the championship.


Pro Stock racer Jimmy Ålund needed to win the race and have Thomas Lindström go out in the semi final to win the championship; Thomas only needed to win the semi final against Michael Malmgren, which he achieved.


Pro Stock racer Simon Gustafsson ran a pair of 6.83s and a 6.89 in his Dodge Avenger run by Samantha Racing and in round one, a startline advantage over Jimmy Ålund meant Jimmy won by only 0.12s.


Top Methanol Dragster Jonny Lagg said 'We suffered with worn tyres at Tierp and didn't get any good runs in. So we put new tyres on and are running much better this weekend. We can also put in more fuel and ignition'. After qualifying fourth at 5.546/264 he did the save of the event to keep it off the guardrail to defeat Dave Wilson. Jonny's history in the sport includes running a Funny Car in 1995 in NHRA with Kent Persson, Jonny Nilsson and Peter Lantz.


Top Methanol Dragster Dave Wilson ran well at the start of qualifying with a 5.41/267 however then minor problems struck. Son David said 'We had a throttle that stuck at too high rpm and on the next run it stuck shut. The engine is fine and we have hopped it up for eliminations'. Dave had tyre smoke on launching in round one. The photo shows the auxiliary fuel tank enabling the car to start on methanol before it is leaned over to nitro.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Liam Jones qualified third with a 4.05/296 and then defeated Duncan Micallef in round one with a 4.02/295. He said 'The run was relatively smooth however it started going left and after I lifted off and pulled the chutes it went more to the left. It was a hairy moment but I kept it under control. It's great being able to run well at my home track in front of all the British fans after a great season'.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Jari Halinen has had a wretched couple of races - until this morning. He said 'We have been having problems with the clutch and my team have only just managed to fix it, so we are back. Thanks to Jimmy Walsh for his help. I feel sorry for Anita who I raced against, she and Tommi are good friends but that is racing'. In the semi final Jari had an easy go when Stefan Gunnarson broke to reach the final, and he defeated Micke Kågered in the final for his first ever event win.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Urs Erbacher, pictured with crew chief Robin Grice, qualified fourth with a 4.11/285 and lost to Stefan Gunnarsson on a holeshot in round one. He said 'That was the first holeshot loss for me in 33 years. Stefan is a killer on the lights. This year we have had to sort out a lot of problems. We had a new fuel system with different parts and they didn't work as we wanted them to. Our car is quite old now so we are looking to buy a new one to replace it and get Indja my daughter licensed. With that we will run the full season next year'.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Micke Kågered is 2015 series champion after a 2014 championship where he won by virtue of another team being disqualified. He said 'We couldn't do anything about that and it is good to win this year by scoring points and round wins. Our car has a good chassis. The engine pushed the gasket out twice but the block wasn't damaged and we have plenty of spares. We want to step the engine up as the competition are getting stronger and stronger. Next year's championship will be on a new level'.


Top Fuel and Top Methanol Dragster racer Stefan Gunnarson had a big engine explosion after his round one defeat of Urs Erbacher. Crewman Ulf Hultholm said 'We are having to replace the block, heads, fuel pump and injector hat, there was a lot of destruction. The team made the call for the semi final, but a missing throttle stop led to the engine over-revving on the burnout and Stefan had to shut off. In Top Methanol, Stefan went out to new champion Dennis Habermann in round one.


Pro Stock racer Michael Malmgren is joined by Bob from MBE cylinder heads who has made heads for Michael's Bob Ingles engines. Bob said 'It's great to be at Santa Pod. MBE makes cylinder heads for a lot of racing applications including Formula One and leading NHRA racers and I get to travel to races a lot. This is a really nice track and it's good to see a large crowd'. Michael said 'We are pleased to run 6.6s and have been testing some new stuff'. Michael was edged out in a very close race against Thomas Lindström.


Pro Stock racer Thomas Lindström was confirmed as 2015 European Champion when he beat Michael Malmgren by 0.04s. He said 'It's all about tuning the setup here. The track is so good we can't get it up on the rear wheels and it just shakes. In session three we ran an eight and decided to rebuild, changed the four linke and shocks and improved to a 6.63 in the final session.


Pro Modified racer Rick Garrett defeated Norbert Kuno in round one of eliminations. He said 'Our 60 ft time of 0.93 was our best ever but I had a big pedal at half track. We still went 6.32/216 and so it would have been in the 6.2s if it had stuck. In round two Rick ran a 6.36 but went down to Mats Eriksson's 5.96.


Pro Modified racer Roger Moore is having apparent good fortune in some ways today. He defeated Andy Robinson in round one with a 6.65 after Andy got out of shape and then Roger Johansson with a 6.52 and then in the semi final Bruno Bader was shut off and Roger went 6.57. He said 'In round one the car went through the clutch and it didn't lock up and then the right slick got a puncture so we have had to change both slicks between rounds. Thanks to Kev Slyfield and his team for their help'.


Pro Modified racer David Vegter qualified seventh with 6.28/232 and then defeated a shake plagued Kev Slyfield in round one with a 6.23. He said 'We will have to step up against Bruno Bader in round two - he has had engine problems but we will be giving it all or nothing'. David improved further to 6.13/232 but Bruno went 6.00, but at the cost of more engine parts.


Top Methanol Dragster racers Dennis and Timo Habermann have had a great season with Dennis winning the championship and Timo with a new record of 5.20. Dennis went on to win the event with a 5.36.


Top Fuel Bike racer Rene van den Berg, pictured with team, had a great race with Ian King in the semi final when Ian went up in smoke and then recovered to take the win by 0.1s. In rond one Rene had defeated Filippos Papafilippou with a 6.98, his first round win with the new bike. He said 'We are winning again, I'm back in the race and the engine is in one piece'.


Pro Stock racer Robert Karlsson took over the riding of daughter Elvira's bike as she is pregnant. Robert's experience is from Super Street Bike some 20 years ago and he ran in the sevens on his debut in Pro Stock. He said 'We are progressing and are running 7.1s and 7.0s here after some six second passes at Tierp. The track is very good and the bikes are consistent but we don't have the speed we need to run quicker. Ellsa grazed the wall and the crank bolt got bent, so as we have no spare she has been able to withdraw from competition. It's been a phenomenal season for us'. The team say they are planning on running in both FIM and EDRS Pro championships next year and are looking at a full US season in 2017.


Top Fuel Bike racer Rickard Gustavsson ran 6.54 and 6.56 to qualify third and then defeated Nick Milburn with a 6.63 and Steve Woollatt with a 6.47. He said 'It has gone good this weekend and the bike is handling well on a track that we are sometimes getting close to overpowering. Rickard needed to defeat Ian King in the final to win the championship, but Ian kept ahead for his ninth title.


Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator racer Al Williamson suffered mechanical issues on the cruise when a crank pulley bolt sheared off after only a few yards on the public highway, leading to a failure of the crank trigger. He said 'We had problems and were chasing various things as the bolt was loose and it was affecting the timing which was not stable. I have a spare pulley assembly at home and will replace it this week and I plan to run at the Hot Rod Drags and National Finals'.


Super Street Bike racer Steve Venables ran the first Super Street Bike six second pass yesterday, a 6.95/212. He said 'It's quite emotional, we were the first in the sevens and now first in the sixes and they can't take that away from you.' Steve's previous best run at this event was 7.08, and Garry Bowe and Dave Holland were also both knocking on the door of the sixes. Daughter Jemma improved her PB to 7.33/188 after taming the bike which was making wheelies in earlier rounds,


Super Street Bike racer Shawn Buttigieg and Walter Sprout were working together on the Kalanc machine, which ran a best of 7.12 in the fourth session. Shawn had tested to 7.17 on Wednesday and the bike had suffered tyre spin in earlier runs. It hooked up better in the last session, did a 1.26 60ft time and was going 190mph at 1000ft.


Super Street Bike racer Thomas Granica, pictured with brother and tuner Peter and Graham Dance, also improved to a 7.449, one hundredth off his personal best. He said 'That was much needed, as we were close to the bump spot and you never know what can happen. It was awesome to be part of the celebration for Steve's six and the racers at the far end went nuts'.


Top Fuel Bike racer Steve Woollatt was delighted with a 6.23 personal best pass at only 200mph. He said 'I shut it off early and we found a damaged ceramic on the spark plug, so we have needed to take the head off and clean it all up'. Steve had a special run of ten tee shirts produced after last year's mch-viewed incident and gave some to fellow competitor Filippos.


Pro Stock Bike racer Gert-Jean Laseur ran a best of 7.14/183 on his Buell to go fourth. He said 'The bike feels rough and tried to knock me off. I have a new engine in it, it should be better than my old engine which I had in at Hockenheim and I was looking for a better time but the bike has been moving around the track a little too much'.


Top Fuel Bike racer Nick Milburn ran his first 200mph run this weekend in 7.34s to go sixth in the ladder. He said 'The bike is running well, I want to do my first six on it this year but have had traction problems with wheelspin off the line. My rear tyre is a car slick and think the compound in that may be the problem'. Nick went from an offset 14 inch wheel to the present central wheel with sidemounted drive and brake on the bike, formerly run by the late Brian Johnson as the first Imperial Wizard fuel bike.


Pro Stock Bike racer Fredrik Fredlund went 7.01/190 in the final session to go into no.1 qualifying position, having run 7.20, 7.12 and 7.07 in earlier sessions to be the quickest in each. He said 'We are leading Gert-Jean in the points but need to win two rounds to be sure of the championship. I am also on the first half of a European speed record. Handling of the bikes needs to be razor sharp and you have to be careful not to move around too much on the bike'. Plans for the winter season include a possible appearance at the Gatornationals in March 2016.


Pro Stock Bike racer and Eurodragster.com sponsor Martin Newbury was happy to run his first time in the 7.2s, a 7.24/171. He said 'I used only five of the six gears and shut off at 6.8s but the bike has come together and now producing the performance we want. The earlier 7.37 pass had a quicker back half. We have achieved our obectives of running quicker than 4.5/155 in the eighth and of running a 7.2. It's the best meeting we've ever had'.


Top Fuel Bike racer Ian King got the bike hooked up and ran a 5.900/242 in the final session, a first half of a new European speed record. He said 'It was good to run and get the qualifying points so that we are now within a round of Rickard Gustafsson'.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Stefan Gunnarson is supported by Peter Lantz as tuner and, picture, Ulf Hultholm. Peter said 'It is manic running two cars but we have a great team to help us. We are closer to getting the combination of fuel and clutch right on the A/Fuel car and need to step up against the Habermanns. The Top Fuel car is getting better and we ran a decent 4.32 after missing the first session. On that run the car dropped a cylinder but didn't shake. So we can be more aggressive and give Urs good competition'. Now Stefan is getting acclimatised to driving Top Fuel, the plan is to make a run for the FIA Championship in 2016 and have my son Robin drive his A/Fuel car alongside it.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Patrik Pers had to pedal in the final session following three aborted attempts with tyre shake. However the engine suffered an explosion and with both blocks two damaged the team had to withdraw and so Jari Halinen is in as alternate. Mark 'Animal' Bodimeade (pictured right) said 'The track is wonderful and we were surprised how much power it could take'. Car owner Patrik (pictured left) said 'We are looking at continuing next year if we can get sponsorship'.


Top Fuel Dragster racer Stig Neergaard, qualified seventh with 4.86/231 said 'We are confused, we have either not enough or too much power and the adjustments we made each time haven't worked. In session three we had shake at 0.8s and in session four we had smoke at 1.0s and pedalled, I'm proud to say the engine is clean. This could be anyone's race and I hope we have luck'.



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