Saturday at The Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park

Final Qualifying - it's going to be a shoot-out!

Saturday 29th July 2006

Again, I was grateful to have a lift from Glenn & Ashley in the morning and we were at the track before half past eight. I decided to skip the Super Street and Super Comp session and head straight off into the pits, clutching my gas mask. As all 13 competitors in Top Fuel readied themselves for the final days’ qualifying, I am pleased to report that I took in all but 1 of the Top Fueler’s warm-ups. Fantastic! I really love the fuel warm-up procedures!

In the day's first session of Top Fuel (third overall), Stig Neergaard got away on what appeared to be a trouble free run, but inexplicably lifted at 1000 feet, giving him a 5.70 second timing ticket which was still out of the show at the moment. It was great to see Jöran Persåker out to play, at last, in the ex-Jon Webster driven and now ex-Peter Knight-owned Top fuel dragster. Peter Lantz has been wheeled in to turn the spanners for Jöran and the car sounded really strong on the burnout. They have had so much to do since the car was delivered to Gothenburg on Monday of this week. Not only are the crew working together for the first time, but Peter Lantz is getting to understand what Jöran has got and what they can do with this combination. The fact that they missed the first two sessions is a testament to the incredible amount of work that Peter and the crew have put into the car. After sounding really strong on the burnout, Jöran launched hard to 300 feet and instantly boiled the tyres, which Jöran seemed to be expecting and the chutes popped out, apparently in sympathy. A good start, but not in the show yet.

Tommi Haapanen was next up in Anita's old ride and the burnout sounded pretty paltry; so much so I thought it would be shut off. No so, at the hit, Tommi blew the tyres off by the tree, gave it a pedal, then again and finally gave up on the run. Håkan Fällström was up next on a solo. His run must surely have had the trailer loaded into his tune-up, because he smoked the tyres at half track, got right off it and then back on it and Håkan still got to the stripe in 5.05 seconds. I wager that run would have definitely been a 4.8 something if it had stuck... but it didn't and it doesn't matter, because Håkan was well in the show. Next up was the pairing of Monica Oberg and Håkan Nilsson. Nice burnouts, as usual and on the run, Monica was ahead but again smoked the tyres at half track. Håkan looked to be laboured on his run an ran to 1000 feet before lifting to a 5.37 second pass. For the next pair there of Andy Carter and Lex Joon, there appeared to be a little bit of a staging battle. Andy went in last and he ran hard to 800feet before raw fuel came out the pipes as he possibly spat his blower belt off. Lex, on the other hand was clearly on a storming run; straight as a die; all cylinders lit; no smoke and he appeared at the stripe really quickly. Again, the timing equipment chose that moment not to record a time or speed. This had already happened several times over the weekend and it was a pity that this should keep happening. Next up was Thomas Nataas and Micke Kågered and as they completed their burnouts, they were shut off, due to an equipment problem. They were then moved off behind the next pairing of Urs Erbacher and Tommy Möller, to 'cool down'. At the hit, Urs and Tommy were glued together all the way down the track and Urs got there first with a 5.03 and Tommy got a 5.02. On their re-runs, Thomas and Micke ran hard and they were glued together all the way down track and Micke got there first with a 4.94 second pass and Thomas was nanoseconds later with a 5.03 second time.

In the final qualifying session on Top Fuel, everyone was feeling a little tense. Of the people not qualified at this time, Andy Carter, Jöran Persåker, Stig Neergaard, Monica Oberg and Rene Hersland, I guess Andy felt the greatest pressure from a Championship perspective. In the first pair, Jöran was out paired with Stig and clearly this was time for the chips to go on the table. Stig was inexplicably off the throttle by 300 feet and Jöran ran a stout 5.24 seconds and squeaked into the show. Stig was now ready to load up. Tommi Haapanen and Monica Oberg were up next. Tommi finally gets it together and ran a strong 5.17 second pass and promptly puts Jöran on the trailer, but not without sacrifices to the Aluminium Gods and lots of oil in the shut down area. Monica was running well but was hazing them heavily with the brake on and got there in 5.35 seconds. Not good enough to get in the show, unfortunately. Håkan Nilsson ran with Rene Hersland and Håkan smoked then at half track, pedaled it, smoked 'em and pedaled again and got down in 6.46 seconds. Rene improved to 6.52 seconds and was going home. Håkan was now in the insidious position of being on 'The bubble', being qualified at position number 8. Andy Carter was up next with Lex Joon and Andy started with a smokeless burnout. Crew chief Ben Allum stopped Andy and instructed him to have another go, but to no avail. Both Andy and Lex got into stage and both ran well to 300 feet; Lex blazed his tyres and Andy went up in smoke, gave it another try but it really moved around and he gave it up, his only option. That, unfortunately, meant that 2 time Top Fuel champion was not going to be racing in Sunday Eliminations. Furthermore, any championship chances now looked bleak. Tommy Möller was up next with Thomas Nataas. Tommy smoked them at half track, but Thomas ran straight and true to get in the show at 5.08 seconds at a smidgeon short of 300mph. The final pairing in Top Fuel qualifying was Micke Kågered and Urs Erbacher. After good burnouts, Micke smoked them at 300 feet to 8.67 seconds and Urs ran a laboured pass with 2 dropped cylinders to 5.38 seconds at, according to the timing equipment, 14.41 km/h, which I suggest was missing the digit "4" at the beginning.

After qualifying was completed, I was generally hanging around the pits and as I was resting my aching feet on a comfy chair at the Kågered pit, I was astonished to see the skies turn pitch black. A spit or two of rain saw me reach for my equipment and I headed into Micke’s hospitality tent. Within moments an incredible deluge of rain was pelting stair-rods of water onto every exposed surface and just when you thought the rain couldn’t get harder, it got MUCH heavier. The amazing thing was the speed at which the floods of water simply washed out virtually everything in the pits. To see the sight of a nearly empty Nitromethane barrel suddenly to lift off the floor and float away was something to be beheld.

When the rain slowed a little, Thomas (who’s been working on Micke’s Top Fuel crew for years) gave us a lift in the new Knut Söderquist-mobile. Those of us who have fond memories of his Suburban can immediately see that his Chrysler Voyager is it’s worthy replacement. As we piled in, of course, clambering over axle parts, engine parts and clutches, we were soon comfy for the short run to the other side of the pits. It was no surprise to hear Thomas complaining bitterly that there was no power steering and that the brakes were ineffective… this brings back good memories...

Our journey back to Linköping, courtesy of Glenn and Ashley, seemed to take no time at all and I busied myself in the hotel getting batteries charged and again, I decided not to head into town. The beckon of a hot shower, a comfy bed and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall (complete with Swedish subtitles) all seemed to make town less attractive than I had perceived it a couple of hours earlier. A quick night-cap later, I was ready for the ‘zed shed’.

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