Saturday at The FIA European Finals at Santa Pod

The European Finals - Professional Qualifying Day Two

Saturday 9th September 2006

I got to the track nice and early and I decided to order up a nice bacon baguette. I enjoyed it very much in the bright morning sunshine and the cup of coffee that accompanied it set me up for the morning. After unloading my stuff in the media centre, I set off up into the pits clutching my camera and my trust gas mask! I was not to be disappointed, either, because the warm-ups came thick and fast. You can never catch all of them because quite often two will be warming at the same time, but I was not too disappointed. 'Disappointment' sprang to mind, however, when I called round to the Pennzoil pit as I saw Håkan Fällström's fueler with no motor or driveline in the car at all. It seems the 'hydraulic' incident which then lifted the supercharger - literally (possibly the loudest 'bang' I've heard in a good while) and burned off a lot of other stuff looked like it would take a lot of work (and parts) to get ready for the final session later today - if at all.

I got back to the start line just in time to see Andy Frost dip into the 7 second zone again with an improved 7.94 at over 180mph. Andy will be as pleased as punch with that. Professional qualifying got underway with Pro Stock bike and the quality of the performances are really beginning to look like they run in the USA; Britain's Martin Bishop (I saw him in the 'other' lane at Mantorp in the PSB Final and rushed to change sides - difficult at the best of times at Mantorp and was breathless by the time I was in position to take that winning shot.... of a red light! Martin!) was in the middle of the pack with 7.63 which was topped after session 1 with Tom Tinndahn and his superb 7.228. Super twin bike got underway with a fright for Joachim Riemer who crossed lanes and introduced himself to the top end wall. All was okay afterwards, thankfully. Lorenz Stäuble came out on top at the end of the session with a 6.610 at 210mph and Job Heezen anchored the field with an 8.2 second pass. Top fuel bike was next with it's (confusing) array of all-comers equipment and at the top of the list after the first session was Roel Koedam on his last race in Top Fuel bike before switching to Super Twin next year with the Pels family. Up next was Pro Stock Car and the whole session proved to be a real thriller. Having finally made it to the track after a breakdown and having fitted the newly arrived motor from the States, Richard "Nixon" Sundblom ran a personal best of 6.96 which was a deserved shot in the arm for the team and their recent tribulations. Michael Malmgrem then astonished everybody with an incredible 6.850 at 202.58 an incredible feat with FIA spec Pro Stock, as they are restricted as to the fuel they are allowed to use, as opposed to the full blown racing gasoline which is used on the NHRA tour in the States. Eero Knihttilä was also in the 6.8 second zone with a 6.894 at over 200mph. In the first round of Top Fuel for the day and the third in total, Tommy Möller had a bye and came up trumps with a 4.998 at 'only' 264 mph which indicated Tommy had lifted early. In the ensuing brief flash-bang, Tommy's blower got lifted. The next pair was Smax Smith and Håkan Nilsson and they were both on for storming side by side runs until Smax's clutch exploded like an atom bomb. Molten metal an bits went everywhere leaving Smax's dragster gravely wounded. Håkan blew by Smax and got to the stripe in 4.800 seconds at 290mph. The chance of resetting a new European TF record starts with this run. Tommi Haapanen and Thomas Nataas were the next pair and Thomas was in trouble with rattle & shake, just past the tree. He lifted when he probably couldn't see anything at all, but Tommi on the other hand blew his tyres off and decided to keep his boot in and this, invevitably, led to a huge oil-down which took a good while to clear up by Santa Pod's wonderful track crew. Once the track was clear, Micke Kågered and Lex Joon were tabled to do battle and Micke hit shake just past the tree and wisely lifted. Lex, on the other hand, was running well but had more power than the mid-section of the track could handle and he started hazing his tyres which immediately resulted in several cylinders dropping which pushed him towards the centre line and, at last, Lex lifted. A notable no-show in this session was Urs Erbacher, even though Crew Chief Glen Mikres was pacing around and carefully inspecting the track. In a brief chat I had with him, he expressed his views that the track was great and the air was 'unbelievable'. "I take it you might have loaded a big tune up into the car for the final qualifying round, then?" "Maybe" Glen said, with a smile. In Pro-Mod, we had another thrilling session with Urban Johansson dipping into the 'teen' zone with a 6.179 at over 229mph. What's more, it was great to see the others snapping at Urban's heels. Jan Arve Nygård set a new personal best and also ran the quickest ever nitrous pro-mod pass at 6.301 seconds at 221.65 mph. The Fuel Funny cars demonstration showed that they were all beginning to get a handle on their tune-ups and John Spuffard, in particular, moved in the mid-section just like they do in the 'States (ie: I was convinced John was heading for the 'back door' with a sub Five second pass) but the wheels spun at around 850 feet and John lifted. It still ran a 5.79 seconds, though!

After the professional first session, I took a quick time-out to catch up with my lifelong friend Dave Harvey who was making a rare visit to the track on a qualifying day instead of eliminations. We have both grown up as petrol heads and I'm pleased to say that Dave's partner Sally-Anne, also loves coming to the racing. With Dave was another couple of friends who were visiting the races for the first time and loving every second of it. I said that no doubt, they would enjoy the second pro session more than the first and I then grabbed a quick bite before returning to the track side.

The second professional session got underway with Pro Stock bike. Paul Watson was bumped out of the show in what was an unremarkable session. In SuperTwin, Job Heezen got bumped out of the show when Jaska Salakari got it together with his KTM and ran a second-place grabbing 6.702 at 196.55 - just deserts for Jaska and the team who have been working their b*tts off to get the bike running properly. In Pro Stock car, Michael Malmgrem got the back-up run he needed to secure the 6.85 new European ET and speed record. Eero Knihtilä was also running in the 6.8 second zone with a 6.889/199.87 pass. In the final session of Top Fuel, we started off with Tommi Haapanen who was on a lonesome. Tommi doesn't seem to understand when to give up on on a run; He boiled the tyres at 250 feet, pedaled twice, waited and then sizzled the tyres all the way through the stripe and.... oiling both lanes to boot. Whilst we were waiting for the fantastic Santa Pod track crew to clear things up, I decided to leave the track side and to visit the 1200 feet zone at the very top end of the track. I have had great success with shots taken in this zone in the past as they are notoriously difficult to get. I was in place just in time for Lex Joon and Stig Neergard to face off. I knew I had some good results, but I caught myself winding out the lens just as Lex approached - so the image was clear but small - damn! Lex was on a stormer but tossed the blower belt right around where I was standing and he STILL ran a 4.817 second pass at a slowing 271mph. For the next pair, we had Urs Erbacher and Thomas Nataas and as Urs was in the pit side lane, I chose to shoot across the track at him. Urs looked clean and green with his big hides planted and he hammered down the track at an incredible 4.747 at an Intergalactic 318.95mph! I managed to get Urs full frame near the finish line, but as the legendary Roger Gorringe quipped when he peered at the picture, "I've seen better from you". He's right. So have I, but it's ruddy difficult to get any sort of picture at the top end! Thomas Nataas got safely into the show, almost unnoticed in the other lane, bumping out Micke Kågered out in the process. Micke was waiting in the next pair to run off against Håkan Nilsson who was in the pit side lane and therefore the subject of my shootings on this next run. Another stout run from Håkan resulted in an incredible 4.836 seconds at 296mph, even though he had a least one cylinder out and had a little bit of haze as well. This is backup for the 4.800 pass this morning and is a new European record. I thought to myself "Enjoy it while it lasts, Håkan, because I bet it isn't a record by the end of the weekend". Micke got safely into the show with a 5.041 at 275mph. I hurried back to the start line again and got there just after missing the burnout of the first pair of Top Methanol funny car, which was an eventful session - bar for huge burnouts Kjell and Arvid and an amazing driving job from Ulf Leanders as he was ALL over the place; a run that was only straightened out with the chutes. In Top Methanol dragster, in a less than perfect outing, Dave Wilson unusually used up a bullet and oiled his lane and aside from the session there seemed to be trouble with people in vehicles on bridal paths in no-go areas and locked tow vehicles with children inside which distracted from the racing a little. Rob Turner then certainly got our attention by dipping into the 5.4 second zone for the first time whish was a major shot in the arm for the Turner team and crew. Things quickly hotted up again with the final qualifying session of Pro Mod. It seemed that everyone was really trying hard in this final session and in some cases, a little too hard. Micke Gulliquist was having a real hard time qualifying and the last session was no less difficult: Micke had shake and pedaled it and hauled that baby by the scruff of the neck to the stripe and at 7.061 at 215.35, he simply had not done enough to make the show. In doing so, he handed the Pro-Mod championship to Urban Johansson on a plate. Micke was in the control tower helping with colour commentary for the rest of the weekend and you can imagine that "disappointed" doesn't go all the way to describe how he was feeling! Most of the rest who had qualified made little improvement with various people pedaling and suffering shake. However, to top out the pairings, Urban Johansson was up against Andy Robinson and despite getting there first with a 6.218 at 217.75 (backing up his earlier 6.174 pass), he know had a friend in the "teens" with Andy Robinson streaking past the stripe at 6.195 at 228.64. Absolutely brilliant! It was great to see Andy and the team led by Crew Chief (and son) Luke come back from their year long troubles with starters and parlay that into this sort of incredible Stateside performance. We had birthday-boy Roger Goring put in a pass with the Firestorm jet car next and finally, John Spuffard appeared with the Showtime nitro Funny Car. The car really sounded strong and at around the Christmas Tree, John gave it a quick pedal and then kept them planted to the stripe. The result: 5.281 at 267.99 - the quickest ever pass by a Nitro Funny car outside the USA. Well done, John and the team. I believe there's a lot more to come from the car and the team. A quick mention must be made of Andy Frost in the Red Victor/2 car who in Comp Eliminator ran down to an incredible 7.802 at 183.07mph! The quickest 'real street' car in the world!

I was feeling quite weary now and I headed off to the Hotel in Wellingborough. I set up transferring pictures and battery charging and in the meantime, I had gone off the idea of going out for a Curry and instead repeated my menu choice from the previous evening at the local MacDonalds. I met up with Guy and the lads later in the bar at the hotel and an excellent evening was had by all. By the time I turned in, I was completely knackered and was looking forward to a good night's sleep which, I am glad to say, I got.

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