Saturday at the 2007 European Finals

The 2007 FIA European Finals meeting from Santa Pod, UK, 6th-9th September 2007

Last night started off innocently enough, with a delicious steak dinner at the Dog and Partridge at Wellingborough. Just as I drained my pint glass, I was thinking that I really must empty my cameras and start charging up the batteries for tomorrow’s shooting; and as that thought entered my head, it immediately left again, as my Swedish buddy Patrik and a bunch of his Norwegian pals walked through the door. What was alarming was that they were all looking dangerously thirsty. Ah, well! The best laid plans of mice and men…

Needless to say it was with a thick head that I arose and I hurriedly got my equipment together to get to the track. Why is it that the sun has to be so bright on days like these?

I was in good time and dropped my stuff off at the office and quaffed, greedily, on a cup of black and very strong coffee. Invigorated, I rushed off up into the pits to seek the cure for all ills – the Nitro warm-up! Micke Kågered was the first to oblige and I snapped a bunch of pictures. Even though I was wearing my Gas Mask during the warmup, through the fumes I was desperately fumbling for the volume knob! Just as my brain stopped rattling, Lex Joon and his team struck up their dragster. I think it is because they neither ‘barp’ the throttle, or gradually ‘roll’ them (to ‘run in’ the clutch pack) that we end up with a ‘quieter’ warm-up, if that’s possible with a Top Fuel dragster. I still love it, though! Stig Neergaard was next, followed by the inimitable Jöran Persåker. Jöran’s crew chief Peter Lantz has never disappointed in his warm-up procedure, as he always ‘barps’ the throttle. I looked at the gathered crowd as I was shooting and easily spotted a ‘Nitro Virgin’ being shuffled to the front by eager and (more experienced) friends. You could see that he was braving the fumes as to avoid disappointing his mates, but I watched closely as Peter hit that throttle linkage and this lad must have leaped 500 feet in the air, well – okay, maybe two or three, then! Tommi Haapanen was next up followed by the mighty Urs Erbacher who had US Tuner Glenn Mikres turning the knobs for him this weekend, as he has done all season.

With my head thoroughly cleared, I made my way back to the line for the start of Pro qualifying. UEM Super Twin was first up (for me) and it was great to see Roel Koedam really getting a handle on the Pels Family bike after stepping across from Top Fuel Bike, last season. The light started to go, almost immediately, hence the slightly dreary look to a lot of the pictures. Per Bengt had a huge bang on his burnout but was still smiling on his way down the pit road which, I guess, means he’s got plenty of money and a sense of humour too! Ian Turburville followed him down the pit road, too, and managed a wave and a silly look, which for Ian probably meant that there was little wrong.

In Top Fuel bike, fellow Picky Virgo Ian King made a reasonable start to the day with a slowing 6.8 second pass to add to Friday’s 6.51.

Skipping to session 3 of Top Fuel, there were no great shakes this session. Urs Erbacher and Tommi Haapanen did a great job of putting down side by side 4.83 & 4.84 second passes – a personal best for Tommi. Andy Carter spat his blower belt off after another storming .83 second 60 foot time. This car and team seems to have barely scratched the surface in terms of potential. Stig Neergard made a laboured pass in the other lane to a mid 5 second timing slip. Also struggling in this session was Jahnne Ahonen whose efforts ended up with a pootling 10 second pass. Micke Kågered also seemed to struggle with dropping cylinders and an irritating 6.8 second ticket was the result. Micke’s first year as owner/driver of his top fuel team has been fraught with teething problems. Jöran Persåker was up next with Lex Joon and after a storming 60 foot, Jöran’s motor decided to go South and unfortunately Jöran’s foot didn’t go North (off the pedal!) and we were “treated” to a “Boomer” of Krakatoan proportions. I guess Jöran’s block may well have needed a little more than a pack of Elastoplasts to fix it up…. Lex stepped on the gas at the green light and boiled his big fat hides again by the time he reached the tree. For him, this meant (as it has pretty much all season) that he would have his one and only shot of getting into the Top Fuel show in the last session. Gulp!

Then followed an uneventful Top Alcohol session which was nicely followed with the third Pro-Mod qualifying outing. No big shakes here, either except that the Lindahl Camaro steamed over the stripe at 6.175 at nearly 230mph. I think we have a new Top Dog in the making! It is a gorgeous car but my only complaint, as with other photographers is that trying to photograph a black car on a black track makes for a difficult job – especially when the paint finish is sort of ‘hazy’ so it makes the picture look a little out of focus! **steps down from soap box ** .

Up next was Leif Helander and Gary Page in their Nitro Funny Cars. Leif has decided to hang his helmet & overalls up after this race and rather than going out with a ‘bang’ he elected to try and improve his ET and Speed bars this weekend and he was to be successful. Gary has been getting used to Kenneth Lorentzon’s chassis, but I understand that a number of things in the cockpit are not entirely suited to him – the brake and parachute levers featuring prominently on that list. It didn’t seem to bother Gary as he blasted rocketed away from the line and clearly showed air under the front wheels and blasted down track; it then started drifting towards the centre line and Gary lifted. There was some smoke towards the finish line. Leif had started off a little more conservatively and he seemed to get out the groove a little before hauling it back and posting an enormous terminal speed of over 284mph on an ET of 5.36 seconds. Well done!

Moving onto the Final Pro Qualifying session, Pro Stock Car proved to be the most exciting Pro Stock session ever run outside the USA. Michael Malmgren ran a 6.81 and was later bumped by Eero Knihtilä with a 6.80. Four drivers ran 6.8 second runs in this Pro Stock session. Unbelievable.

In the final session of Top Fuel, Lex was first up and I guess the whole team were feeling a little puckered after blowing off the tyres before the tree on the three previous runs. A good smoke-free run to 60 feet followed and whilst he had to give it a quick slap at around 200 feet, I got the impression it was getting out of the groove past a 1000 feet and he lifted. Nevertheless, a 4.99 second timing ticket was all that he needed to get into the show. Micke Kågered was on a single, next, and a generally troubled 5.39 at 223mph followed which was, fortuitously, good enough to get in the show. With all the efforts that Micke and his wonderful team put into the car with their endless toilings, he should surely be rewarded with consistent low-ET and high speed runs soon. Multi-time World Ski-Jumping Champion Janne Ahonen does not seem to be blessed with good luck at Santa Pod Raceway, yet. His run did not go well and despite everything going south on the run, Janne kept his boot in, but it was not enough. Janne vanished in a Mount St. Helens-sized cloud of fall-out and he’ll be watching tomorrow and not racing. After the clean-up, Tommi Haapanen and Urs Erbacher ran well with Tommi up in smoke but Urs in the other lane running a terrific 4.76 lifted a touch early at 300.53mph. The crowd were really lapping this lot up and were loving it. The atmosphere was almost overpowering. Andy Carter then appeared right on cue running against Thomas Nataas. At the hit, Thomas boiled his tyres just past the tree and lifted. No such troubles for Andy Carter who put down another sensational .837 60 foot time and got to half track in 3.13 seconds at 266mph. We are really talking deep into USA performances here. Andy said he felt it nose over at 1000 feet and lifted (when I was talking with co-crew chief Karsten, he said that Andy lifted “two tenths before the stripe”) and the net result? An incredible 4.645 second pass (matching the all-time Top Fuel best at Santa Pod by Kim Reymond, to the third decimal place!) at “only” 296mph. Fantastic performance from the Lucas Oils Top Fuel Team.

In TMFC, Leif Andreasson saved the best for last and posted a 5.71 to take the Top Spot. Dan Larson was the only other competitor to get into the five second zone with a 5.83 – but did not improve on his previous 5.78, good enough for the number 3 spot. Fast Freddie remained in second place with his previous 5.72 second timing slip and Ulf Leanders topped out the first four with a previous 5.81 in his IronCad funny car with it’s strange paint job. Swedish Professional Photojournalist Stefan Bowman was involved in the design and he spotted me looking at the body with a screwed-up face, at the Veidec Nitro Festival. He stepped over: “We asked the guy to make the paint Ferrari Red. Obviously something went wrong because now it looks like Tomato ketchup with Milk added to it”. A perfect description and we laughed a lot about it.

In the last session of Top Alcohol Dragster, Dave Wilson couldn’t better his previous 5.45 but Rob Turner put down the quickest time of the session with a 5.49 just tantalisingly short of 260mph. Great news. Peter Schöfer seemed to be strangely off the pace with a flat 5.60 and on the upside, Paul Ingar Udtian seems to be getting his head round Dave Wilson’s old ride and he was right on the numbers with a 5.64. Mention must be made of young Timo Habermann who got himself into the show at number 5 with a marvellous 5.74 – I understand that being his first trip into the 5 second zone. Talking of the 5 second zone, Derek Flynn had been threatening to chop off his pigtail if he managed to crack that particular barrier. He gave it a valiant effort but finished up with a 6.13 second pass, which left the esteemed leader of eurodragster.com, Tog (A.K.A. Andy Rogers) with a little quandary as he had bet the other way on Derek, saying that if he DIDN’T crack the 5 second barrier, that he would GROW a pony tale! Well, that’s braver than most, so good luck with the forthcoming hairy propagation! (In view of recent news of Derek’s graduation to Top Fuel, I don’t think it will have to grow far!)

The final Pro-Mod session was very exciting and we ended up with the first three qualifiers all running in the 6.1 second zone. This is deep into NHRA USA Pro Mod territory and shows such is the state of European Pro Mod to be so competitive. Micke Lindahl was the number 1 qualifier with a sensational 6.11 second pass – but more important was the first European Pro Mod to get to half track in under 4 seconds – 3.980 to be precise. Well done, Micke! Chomping on Micke’s tail was the UK’s Andy Robinson with a terrific 6.161 and chewing right on Andy’s tail was Micke Gulliquist with a 6.164. Another great showing from the pro-modders.

After the Pro-Mod session, we were treated to a run by John Spuffard and his beautiful Nitro Funny Car. This beautiful ‘06 ex-Robert Height Chassis is topped with an ‘05 ex-Eric Medlen Mustang body both of which were purchased out of John Force Racing. A little birdie tells me that yet another of those Mustang bodies is already making its way over to John’s workshop to keep the other one company. The current body has another superb Chris Parker design and looks fantastic. Crew Chief Bob Jarrett had the knobs and whistles just turned right for this run as Spuff scorched down the track to a slightly early lifting 5.13 second pass which neatly backs up his 5.26 second run of the day before for a new European record ET.

All fields are now set for final eliminations, tomorrow.

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