Sunday Eliminations at The Veidec Nitro Festival at Mantorp Park

Sunday eliminations and a drink, at last!

Sunday 30th July 2006

I was ready to go, long before seven and Glenn, Ashley & the boys again, kindly called round to pick me up and we were at the track by 7:30 or so. The one thing I have noticed about the wonderful facility at Mantorp Park is the opening (and closing) times of the various establishments selling food and drink. They do not open before 9am and you’re lucky if you get anything past 6 or at the very latest 7pm. I find it a little strange really, because at all the tracks around the rest of Europe, the United States and elsewhere around the world, especially where there are camping facilities, if you want something to eat at 6:30 in the morning, somewhere is open to offer you what you want. It is a pity that it is not so at Mantorp.

What a cracking day’s racing! The rounds of eliminations went smoothly, starting with Pro Mod. Micke Gulliquist downed first alternate Marc Meihuizen with a 6.509; Roger Johansson defeated Bruno Bader with a 6.535; Micke Lindahl defeats Lars Olsson with a super 6.330; Jarne Arve Nygård beat Matts Eriksson with a 6.412; Urban Johansson dropped Seppo Saapola with a 6.417;Andy Robinson ran straight and true to a 6.41 over a shaking and pedaling Marko Lantto; Gordon Appleton took it easy with an 8.588 over a broken Ulf Rapp; finally, "Fast Freddy" Freddy Fagerström sizzled to a 6.413 over a hard trying Niklas Andersson. In round one of Top Fuel, Urs Erbacher was up against Lex Joon and (after a huge thrash around to get there as the third non-qualifier) first alternate Andy Carter was all ready with his engine running waiting for either car to fail. Sadly for Andy, they did not and despite a bit of flash-bang at the top end, Urs got to the line first with a 5.11 over a disappointed and head-torching Lex. Next up was Tommy Möller against returning racer Tommi Haapanen. Tommi had a lazy burnout and at the hit, Tommy got away with a slight advantage; past half-track Tommy started mixing his cylinders up and stayed with it, but Tommi saw his chance and drove around Tommy for the win at 5.115 seconds. By the time Tommy got to the finish line he was trailing a smoke and vapour trail of the order of Mount St. Helens. The next pair was Thomas Nataas and Håkan Fällström and both had some difficulties; Håkan smoked them in the left lane at 330 feet and the motor appeared to go dead and Thomas got caught out with a big dose of shake and pedaled. In a turn of events, as Thomas got back on the throttle, those big Goodyear hides hooked up and he shot off down the track to get to the finish in 5.13 seconds but at a thundering 302.46mph - not bad seeing as his boot was OFF the throttle for half a second! In the final pair of Top Fuel, we had a highly confident number one qualifier, Micke Kågered, up against the bump spot holder Håkan Nilsson. Don't ever think that either of these guys will ever lay down or submit without throwing everything they've got at the track. Always in such a round-up, it will it be the case and what a treat we had in store. After great burnout and sounding really cackley, they both staged, got set and at the green Micke was away first and they were pretty much glued together all the way down the track and at the finish, Håkan got there first by a smidgeon, with a cracking 4.865 at 294mph just nosing out Micke with 4.917 at 301.91mph. I guess you might have 'Staked the Farm' on a 4.917/301.91 being a winning European round of Top Fuel, but I believe we had just witnessed the quickest side-by-side run in Europe (not the fastest) and Micke's team should hold their heads high.

In the second round of Pro Mod, Micke Lindahl took his big 57 Chevy into the next round with 6.379 over Roger Johansson; Urban Johansson dipped into the 6.2 second zone with a 6.290 defeating Jan Arve Nygård; Gordon Appleton was the beneficiary of the confession of a push start by Andy Robinson so duly advanced and Micke Gulliquist was not overawed by Fast Freddy's enormous burnout and dropped him with a 6.301 to a 6.368. In round two of Top Fuel, Urs Erbacher was up against Tommi Haapanen. Tommi barely pulled the skin off the rice pudding on his paltry burnout, though it didn't seem to harm him. Tommi then threw it away with a red light and was off the throttle at 300 feet. Urs powered by with a hole out all the way down to the stripe and collected a measly 5.6 second ticket. I guess that the time of 5.6 seconds betrayed some other nastiness that had gone on in Urs's motor department, too. The next pair was Håkan Nilsson against Thomas Nataas and at the hit, Thomas had a bit of shake 'n rattle and had to give it a slap a couple of times, whilst a quicker-reacting Håkan whizzed by for a 4.93 second run at just a whisker under 300mph. Thomas trailed with a 6.287.

In the third round of Pro Mod, Micke Gulliquist was up against Gordon Appleton and on the run it looked like Gordon truly had it 'in the bag', but Micke suddenly came past Gordon just before the line at 6.310 seconds to Gordon's very satisfactory 6.369 second pass. Next up was Urban Johansson and Micke Lindahl in the Kendal black Chevy Bel Air. Micke got away first but down track at 1000 feet, sudden smoke from the motor eluded to general nastiness and eating up in the engine department and Micke pulled the chutes and Urban blew by to 6.351 to Micke's impressive 6.437.

The meeting finals got underway with Pro Stock bike. Martin Bishop was up against Anders Abrahamsson and he couldn't contain his excitement at being in an FIA/UEM final and red-lighted it away, handing the victory to Anders with a 7.398 to a 7.591. Pro Stock Car was next with Jimmy Ålund was up against Michael Malmgrem. Jimmy was in front from the start and didn't look back - Michael had got nothing in the tank for Jimmy and he got there first in 6.958 to Michael's 6.991. In the Pro Mod final, Micke Gulliquist at last put an end to Urban Johansson's winning streak with a 6.318 to a 6.375. In the Super Twins final, Lorenz Stäuble got the chance of his first taste of super twin victory over a charging Ronnie Aasen with an engine-smoking 6.877 to Ronnie's 6.885. Top Methanol Funny Car was next with Jörgen Johnsson and Leif Andréasson battling it out. Jörgen capped off a perfect weekend with a victorious 5.822 to Leif's 5.91. Up next was the alcohol dragster category in Top Methanol Dragster. In an almost routine setting, Dave Wilson was in the final against Peter Schöfer. After truly sizzling burnouts, Peter left on Dave, but immediately ran into tyre shake - at the same time there was a little bit of flash-bang for Peter and he lifted the throttle as well as the blower. Dave calmly drove by to a creditable 5.447 at 258mph. In the Top Fuel final it was Håkan Nilsson and Urs Erbacher - both looking to improve on their points position in their rookie Top Fuel seasons. They were away together at the green light but almost immediately a huge flash of flame for Urs and he lifted the throttle. Håkan on the other hand, drove right down Broadway and got to the line in 4.913 seconds to pick up his first victory in only three FIA top fuel races entered. The car and team headed by Per and Karsten Andersen (no relation, surprisingly) are surely one of the most 'dangerous' teams in the Championship and this first taste of blood, I guess, will be the first of many. Congratulations Håkan, his team and to all the winners in what was a truly superb and very well organised race meeting.

It has to be said that there were little of the problems that had caused delays in proceedings over the previous two days and that the eliminations ran very smoothly indeed. By around 4:15/4:30, all the racing was complete and we had an opportunity to catch up with the guys in the pits as the crowds left for home. It was good to catch up with eurodragster hero Tog who was looking fit and well after his recent illness. We chatted as he finished with race reporting and hopped on his posh electric scooter. As he swished away at an impressive velocity, his cheery wave reminded me of a conversation earlier in the weekend regarding this vehicle "I'll be alright when someone will show me how to stop it!" I guess that obstacle has been overcome, then! Later on, I was talking with Gary Page and he mentioned that he didn’t know how we were going to get back as Glenn and Ashley had left earlier to get back to the airport. I set off to see if I could find anyone with a seat to sell. A lot of the people I know were heading straight off to Norway and after a fruitless hour or so of wandering around the pits, I returned to find Gary & Terry still in the same boat. Eventually, a vehicle crammed with folks was heading in the right direction and there was just enough space for them, IF they breathed in! In a moment of inspiration, I asked Andy Willsheer if there was space for me to squeeze into his car (“The Office”) in amongst the ladders and equipment and, bless him, he said yes. At last we headed towards Linköping and Andy and Roger delivered me right to the door of the hotel. Andy was rather taken by the yellow Chevy hot rod parked outside and even paused for a quick couple of photographs.

I had no intention of looking at the photo equipment this night and I rushed into the hotel to get showered and changed so that I could head out into town. I had contacted the other lads who told me they were already out at a restaurant. I had eaten already and merely wanted a drink, so I went into town and the first reasonable establishment that caught my eye was O’Leary’s Irish bar, which I entered at around quarter to nine. Let me tell you, the first drink didn’t even touch the sides! I let the lads know where I was and I was soon settled down at the bar, where I ended up watching the Swedish version of the Eurosport channel, running some tin-topped world touring cars or something like that rattling round and round the track. I enquired as to what time the bar closed and a wave of disappointment came over me as the barman said 10pm. Just like England 20 years ago…. I hadn’t heard from the lads by this time and was fairly convinced that their plans must have changed, which was no problem to me, at all. I just had a few more beers and as the hour of 10 approached, I treated myself to a strong chaser to go with the last beer. As I drained my glass and left, I was feeling a little giggly and I turned on my ‘autopilot’ to head back to the Hotel. I had got about 100 yards when the booming and unmistakable voice of “Animal” Mark Bodimeade (car chief for Knut Söderquist) shouted “Oi, Richard!! We’re over here!!” I feebly responded “Oh, I was just….” And before I could say another word, Mark shouted “Come on! Hurry up!!” and I had no choice but to surrender: “Oh, alright then”. I was soon amongst friends and we piled into a club that did not close at 10pm. Everybody was ordering and Mark motioned me to order and I don’t know what came over me, but I just said “I’ll have the strongest lager in the house” to which the lads all burst out laughing. I didn’t think it was quite that funny, but nevertheless my glass was soon brimming with this rather tasty and thoroughly excellent brew. I quaffed it down, greedily, and thrust my glass back to the barman for a refill. Once it was recharged, I joined the others outside and was delighted to see Roger Gorringe and Andy Willsheer sitting at a table just across the road, enjoying a late dinner. In fact, pretty much most of the attendees at Mantorp seemed to be peppered around the square. Well, that pretty much set the scene for how the rest of the evening went; beer quaffing developing into the Linköping round of the "Beer Power Drinking competition". I'm not sure how I fared with that, as I had a head start but overall, T’was an excellent night as I recall… though a few of the grey cells may have not survived the night! Once I had made it back to my room, I slopped into my bed and was asleep in moments.

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