ON THIS PAGE YOU CAN FIND INFORMATION THAT IS NO LONGER NEWS, BUT CAN GIVE YOU A FEELING OF WHAT THE PAST HAS BEEN LIKE. Results are posted on the results-page during race season may-september.
July 30th: The results from Mantorp have been posted. Click HERE for the updated FIA points standings where Micke is  currently 4th. In the lead Andy Carter, who also took a well deserved win at Mantorp Park. As a summary of the past weekend we can say, everything went our way except the results. With a 35 people staff and in excess of 800 attending guests in two days we had our hands full all weekend, but it all worked real smooth. The two seat dragster was sucessfully piloted by Leif Helander and after a few warm up runs to get to know the car, Leif pretty much had a bracket car on his hands. Most runs ranged in the 8.70 second range with a speed of around 250 km over the quartermile. All passengers agreed that it was an experience out of the ordinary!


Pictured Leif Helander with a passenger in the lineup area. 

As for the race results, where Micke lost to Andy Carter in the quarter finals he comments; "Of course all the team was disappointed. Our first goal was to qualify into the 8-car elimination ladder and only that was a tough and close call". He continues "4 cars qualifying within one hundreds of a second says a great deal about how close the racing is now and how tiny the margins are to be in our outside the ladder. The quickest elapsed time of the event in top fuel was set by Andy Carter when he met me in the quarter finals", says Micke. "We knew we had to run much faster than we had during the qualifications to stand a chance, but did not really have a good recipe for the hot and slippery state the track was in  (30 degrees and bright sunshine all weekend)". "We took a chance, but our plan did not work well and we overpowered the track, while Andy´s car was running like a clock and that was it", says Micke.

"We look forward to the next race in Hockenheim august 15-17th. The event is back in the FIA series which is great. We said at the beginning of the season we need to be patient as we run a different setup system this year. We have improved a lot, but still need to cut 15 hundres of a second and run consistent at that level. That is what we work towards and we have good faith to take a step further at Hockenheim", Micke concludes.




Micke and Kenta by the transporters

July 16th: We have loaded the exhibition trailer (to the right) with equipment needed to build our private VIP-area at Mantorp. The Peugeot trailer (to the left) contain the two seat dragster that will be brought by team Kågered to Mantorp. The racing trailer (in the middle) still await the top fuel dragster to be loaded monday morning. Also showed is the brand new Peugeot Bipper (the first registered in Sweden what we understand) and to the Peugeot Expert. Monday morning we move all traliers out to Mantorp Park and start setting our pit area. Team Kågered will be hosting hospitality for 815 guest in two days (saturday-sunday) during the upcoming swedish round of the FIA European championship at Mantorp Park july 25-27th. The interest have been amazing for this event and our VIP-area for guests invited by our sponsors is fully booked since some time.

14 top fuel teams enter the event and during two days of qualifications compete for 8 spaces in the elimination ladder for sundays competition. to check out which drivers will be seen on track at Mantorp, please click HERE! (opens pdf-file)

Eurodragster will report live from the control tower from event and also bring you pit reports and photos on a daily basis. For that reason team Kågered will not report during the weekend from Mantorp, we concentrate our efforts on being among the 8 quickest teams and (equally important) to serve our guests .

Next update to be made when we have our pitarea ready in the mid of next week.


 


July 10th: We have received the points standings after the race at Alastaro. Micke is currently 2nd in the FIA European championship in top fuel dragster. In the lead, Lex Jonn and in third place right now Andy Carter. Click HERE for the complete standings (open as pdf-file in a new window)


July 8th: Unloading of all equipment back at base in Värna. Max, Micke and Kenta have taken the two hurt engines apart and the heads were sent to the US for repair. Luckily the blocks seem repairable also, so we did not wreck two engines completely. New parts have been ordered to replace what we damaged and what can be repaired in Sweden will completed in time for Mantorp.

Max strips one of the damaged engine blocks, so it can be delivered to the welder quickly..


..while Micke works on a crank shaft


.. and Kenta shows Micke´s neighbour and friend Kalle (left) the other damaged engine block




Winner at Alastaro Lex Joon. Runner-up Micke Kågered

July 7th 11.30 pm: Back again at base in Värna after the race in Finland. 35.000 visitors at the track was a real big crowd and a new record. Congratulations to FHRA for a well organised event!

We had a computer problem we could not solve on site, so sorry we could not report anything during the weekend from the race at Alastaro. Hopefully you found the results at Eurodragster´s website instead. A second place for Micke, we are pleased with. We hurt two engines pretty bad and have a lot of work to put in the remaing days before Mantorp. Nothing we can not fix. We want to be sure we come to Mantorp as well prepared as possible and the work start already tomorrow morning.   
 

July 3rd: The FIA European Championship round #2 in drag racing is on at Alastaro Raceway Finland this weekend. 12 drivers enter the top fuel dragster category. All teams fight during qualifications to be among the top 8, to earn a spot in the elimnation ladder for sunday. Friday-saturday are qualification days. Team Kågered post results every night friday-sunday.


June 28th 7.30 pm: We just got back to base after a great day of exhibition at the Iron Horse MC show in Nyköping Harbour. Great weather, lots af nice bikes on display and lots of visitors. Team Kågereds top fuel dragster was started up twice today and the top fuel chopper was also on display.

above Kenta on the ramp unloading the chopper in the beautiful setting of Nyköping harbour.


Team Kågered was represented by from the left;
Edvin, Micke, Max, Emil and Mika. Missing on the photo but also present was Kenta, Lill and Åsa


A great crowd came to watch when the top feul dragster was started and warmed up twice for dsiplay.
 


Bahco had sponsored the winners of the bike exhibition classes with fine tools. Here one of the happy winners  
 


June 26th: If you are interested to see the entry list for the race at Mantorp Park, we have placed it HERE! (will open a pdf-file)
13 top fuel dragster teams have entered to battle for 8 spaces in the elimination ladder. Sweden represented by Micke Kågered, Håkan Fällström and Jöran Persåker. Looks like we all are in for a tough deal to say the least at Mantorp!



June 23rd: Don´t miss the Kings of nitro program on the Discovery Channel. We watched the first episode this weekend and it was great fun to follow our fellow competitor Urs Erbacher in his struggle towards becoming the FIA top fuel champion in 2007. A well produced, highly informative and entertaing show. Well done Discovery Channel!


Urs Erbacher was the King of nitro 2007..

Next episode of the program is scheduled at sunday june 29th 8 pm CET. Please check the Discovery Channel website for any updates!






June 16th:  28 (!) runs was performed with the Peugeot two seat dragster in four days, with Micke as the pilot. The activity ended sunday and last of all Micke was eager to give truck driver and mechanic Kenta "Gotland" a ride. What he thought about it? I think you can guess by just looking below..



The event was performed by Peugeot Transportbilar in cooperation with team Kågered and Bilskoj . Photos by team coordinator Åsa




June 12th:  First day at the Hultsfred track where Micke piloted the two seat dragster with invited Peugeot guests. Pictured above most of the group gathered around the Peugeot two seat dragster, whereof 9 persons were winners of a ride as Micke´s passenger. After the first day we are satisfied with the car. Micke did 9 rides in two hours. After a great lunch at Fredensborgs Herrgård the guests were brought to the motor arena in Vimmerby to try out some cars they are allowed to drive theselves in addition to being passengers in the two seater.



Above some of Peugeot´s wide range of transport cars that were used for the transportation in between sites. All got a chance to test the model of their liking!
 

Micke with one of the invited guests as a passenger getting ready to try out the track. Kenta assisted in the startline procedures  
 

June 10th late..:  We have said it many times before, we have tons of photo documentation from all kinds of occasions, BUT rarely take the time to publish more than a fraction of it at our website. We aim to improve that and start by inviting you to look at some of our private photos from our recent visit to Sant Pod Raceway, England (will open Power Point slideshow in a new window)



June 10th:  We are preparing all equipment for the upcoming activity with Peugeot June 12-15th, leaving base early thursday morning. Meanwhile, we could not resist showing  a photo of the newest residents in our neighbourhood.. a family of owls! They have not yet decided if they want to stay in the Kågered garden or if the trees at our next door neighbours are more appropriate, so they move about some but are never far away. When we don´t see them we can still hear them communicating at night. Pittoresque detail at the countryside, where we also can spot foxes, wild boars, mooses and deers on an almost daily basis. Maybe we should consider going into the zoo or safari business when we decide to retire from drag racing?!

 





June 4th:  Yesterday Micke went to visit his good friend, chassis builder Mats Eriksson of ME Racing Services in Borlänge. Pictured Micke with Mats far left and Mats´son Lars-Göran (also certified to build Mc Kinney chassis). At the moment they are working to complete a top fuel dragster chassis for finnish driver Tommi Haapanen. Micke also plan to place an order for a new chassis for the season 2009, which will be built this autumn. For the time being Mats & co are to duplicate the rear wing tubing structure for Mickes dragster. That was the main reason for Micke´s visit this time. Beside running a sucessful company Mats is also a skilled driver and team owner in the Pro Mod category. Micke´s and Mats´ mutual history goes way back to the 80´s when they both were competing in the Street Altered category.   





May 29th: Friday we paid a visit to our "new" sponsor Peugeot, to meet the staff at the head office in Stockholm and show them the dragster and transporters, together with the styled Peugeot Expert. Pictured is Micke together with Patrik Jacobsson, representing the Peugeot Transportbilar division.



May 28th: It felt a bit ironic to return to bright sunshine and 20 degrees in Sweden tuesday afternoon, after having spent some (weatherwise) terrible days at the track in the UK. Hopefully all race fans will forget the weekend as fast as we are and we can all come back to the European Finals in septmeber to put on the show we along with the other FIA teams all had planned for.

Our transporters are on their way back, currently in Germany, where we have a ferry booked Travemunde-Trelleborg with TT-line. On return to Sweden they head straight to Stockholm were we have an exhibition at Peugeot´s head office in Stockholm on friday.



May 26th: It looked like we were in for a day of racing after all this bank holiday monday. Micke first pair out on track in top fuel, meeting Jari Halinen. Both did their burnouts and were just seconds from the start, when the starter showed the sign to shut the engines off. Rain started falling over the area meant it was not safe to run. Back in the pit area, team Kågered prepared the car again for race, refueling, changing oils etc. The wait lasted until 2.30 pm when the race director took the decision to cancel the eliminations. It had then rained since 10.30 am.
 
A real pity for all involved, race teams, race track staff and above all race fans on site at Santa Pod Raceway. We started the weekend with a great day of racing saturday, the bank, pit area and grandstands crowded with spectators. It would have been great to end the event in the same manner, but this time it just did not happen.
The weekend was not a waste for team Kågered. With a new setup and equipment it has been valuable to evaluate all data from the two days of running we have had so far. We feel competitive and sure look forward to the continued season. Next round of the FIA Championship is in Finland at the beginning of july (see the race calendar page).


May 24-26th: FIA European Championship round #1 at  Santa Pod Raceway, England Live reports from the track at www.eurodragster.com

Results from saturdays qualifications have been posted on the results page. Micke Kågered 4th quickest with an elapsed time of 5.01 sceonds after a shutting off early. Micke is getting accustomed to the new equipment and setup of the car and all feels good so far and he is looking forward to one more day of qualifiction running sunday.
 


WHO WILL RACE AT SANTA POD THIS WEEKEND?
May 21st: For a full list of the entrants to the upcoming race event at Santa Pod Raceway May 24-26th click HERE (will open pdf-file in a new window)
 




May 21st: Team Kågered begin cooperation with Fristads Workwear. Fristads is one of the leading brands marketed by the Kwintet Group- Europe´s largest supplier of workwear. Fristads is also the leading brand in Sweden. With 1 million items (!!) in stock there was no problem for team Kågered to find models of workwear appropriate for the mechanics tasks. The slogan Fristads works everywhere feels especially applicable in our case! For info about Fristads in english, click HERE (for the UK-based distributor)
 



.. and this is how it looks on site at MaskinExpo


Team Kågered´s exhibition trailer and the truck from SCANIA Hyr will be attending the MaskinExpo fair

May 20th: Part of swedish crew returned to Sweden monday night. Micke, Åsa and Kenta drove straight from the airport to our sponsor SCANIA Hyr, were we borrowed and picked up a brand new truck. It will accompany our exhibition trailer to the MaskinExpo exhibition held at Barkaby, Stockholm May 22-24th. For this occasion the transporters (with awning and carpet) form the stand representing the Scandinavian Trucking Magazine!


Scandinavian Trucking Magazine is published by our sponsor Albinsson & Sjöberg (also known for the BILSPORT Magazine and many other titles!)




photo: Micke strapped and waiting in the lineup area before a run.

May 18th: The test and tune session at Santa Pod Raceway , UK has been completed. Different weather story sunday (luckily!) and team Kågered got on track three times during the day.

The goal for today´s action was testing and evaluating, not chasing ET:s (no full pass was scheduled and the track would not have taken it either with a normal "race" setup, to little traction and that is due to be different story for the upcoming Main Event).


photo: Tuner Göran Edman (here with Terry) was overall content with the data that was collected during the three on track tests sunday

The car had great launches on all three attempts and  Micke commented the car felt real good, better than for a long time. The swedish part of the team Kågered  tuning duo, Göran Edman, said the new clutch canon made a huge difference that could be noticed already at the launch from the starting line. "The reaction in the car is immediate, compared to what we had last year.. then it took what felt like ages before the car actually started moving and it was almost impossible to get good reaction times for Micke who is normally good at that". " Another great improvement", says Edman, "is we can already see the car reacts to changes in a more predictable and desired way with the new equipment we are running this year and it seems promising so far".


photo: Micke and Kenta bringing the blower on a trolley (to be fitted back on the car again after service of the heads have been completed).

Some new routines for the service in between runs also meant team Kågered mechanics cut down the service time noticeable during sunday´s testing. The spirit in the team is great and all work good together, staying at the same positions as last year. For the Main Event however one major change in staff will occur as Gary Page is scheduled to pilots swedish team Lorentzon´s nitro funny car. We bring old timer Pär Evensson from Sweden as a replacement for Gary to work on the engine together with Terry Giles.


photo: Gary servicing the heads in between runs. Next weekend however, he will pilot a funny car

Some of the crew fly back to Sweden monday evening to return thursday evening again at Santa Pod.     


May 17th: Rainshowers on and off during the day saturday at Santa Pod, meant team Kågered stayed in the pits. Micke says; "there was some points where the track was dry and there was some running going on, but for us it would have been pretty useless to go on track under the current conditions, we don´t just need a dry track, we need some track temperature and traction as well so we at least can get a decent 60 foot time and data to work with". Team Kågered spent the day working on the car, had it fired up some times during the day, made sure all was ok after the winter rest. "Close to the end of the day, we were really keen to have a go", says Micke "but after looking at less powerful cars performing on track, we decided to leave it be.

Forecast for sunday looks better, predicited to be all dry and if that is the case our plans are to be on track 2-3 times.

Below some photos from our stay at Santa Pod;


Friday the crew attended to the dragster inside the trailer (warmer inside was the general opinion)  


Mika preparing to fill AMALIE Oil in the engine. Ashley to the right is our newest (UK based) crew member.


Micke was freezing all day saturday. "Can´t believe it.. they tell me it was summer just last week"
 

Captured during warming up the car. Micke in the car, while Mika (left) ans Emil is monitoring the car closely.
 


May 15th: We are on site at Santa Pod- weather with rain showers today, with a forecast for better waethe Micke, Åsa, Emil, Mika, Edvin, Max and Thomas. Truck driver Kenta is already on site and british crew Alan, Terry, Gary and Ashley will join the rest of the team at Santa Pod Raceway, for two days of testing saturday-sunday.

We plan to post a report here, at least each evening saturday and sunday after completed running.

For live updates throughout the weekend, please visit www.eurodragster.com




The airbag on one axle of the trailer broke in France. Here Kenta is fixing the problem temporarily at a truck stop.. 

May 12th: Team Kågered´s top fuel dragster and transporters arrived at Santa Pod, UK early this morning, after an adventure filled travel through Germany and France. The air ride suspension on one axle of the trailer broke in Calais and truck driver Kenta had to fix the problem temporarily to be able to higher the trailer enough to get on the ferry to cross the channel. Micke´s good friend Lee, who is a truck mechanic will help Kenta on site at Santa Pod and has already ordered spare parts. 




Micke has longed for the race season to start..

May 12th: PREVIEW ON EUODRAGSTER TODAY
Micke Kågered and head tuner Alan Jackson share their thoughts on the soon to start race season on www.eurodragster.com  today. Read the article by clicking HERE (will open pdf-file).

Eurodragster is the #1 new forum in Europe for dragracing (260.000 unique visitors in april alone!)
Staff from Eurodragster cover the events at Santa Pod Raceway live, so don´t miss to follow team Kågered during testing this upcoming weekend!





Pictured; Micke with staff from SNA Europe/Bahco and System Edström Bilinredningar during the roadshow activity at Ahsell in Malmö on May 7th



May 2nd:.. AND SHIPMENTS KEEP ARRIVING..


Micke with the new supply of forged pistons from our sponsor JE Pistons


.. and fitting the new air compressor from Gelins KGK. To provide air hose connections needed in the pit work around the race car ( in a smoother way than before), Micke have also engaged the pros at Vacula/CEJN to deliver a special designed solution for team Kågered.


Another special designed solution are the fitted storage shelves from System Edström Bilinredningar, that Micke has mounted at the back of the trailer to carry heads for the top fuel dragster engines.




In the glove business since 2004..

April 30th: Team coordinator Åsa Kinnemar has launched a new website at www.handskar.net where she present hers and Micke´s side business of profile gloves. Åsa has been designing and importing mechanics gloves for team Kågered since 2004. Micke also contributed by designing one model that he personally uses for fine mechanics tasks. The mechanics gloves are naturally used by team Kågered mechanics. As the number of requests and orders for profile gloves have increased without any advertising, it was time to dedicate the profile glove concept with its own website (in swedish to start with). The plan is the website will be developed over time depending on client demand and the founders own ideas.

Åsa comments; "This is something I really enjoy working with as it is  fun watching my (and of course the clients) ideas for new designs be translated into real gloves, that are actually delivered  at my doorstep from my supplier Rose Gloves Specialist in Pakistan and sometimes only days later". She continues; "although models requested so far have included all from baby gloves to hunters gloves, the no#1 seller is the mechanics/allround workmans gloves. By use of different colour combinations and logoprints every client is presented with a unique design, that nobody else has". Future glove projects planned for the next year also include a collection of garden gloves out of the ordinary.

As for team Kågered´s mechanics gloves, the "heavy model" we use is offered in our webshop. Introduced at Santa Pod in May is also a new design of basic mechanics gloves including a wide range of adult and (for the first time!) children´s sizes. Don´miss to visit us in the pit area for a look if you are attending the race!



April 28th: What´s up? This is the last week of preparations at base before the transporters leave Värna. So what have we been up to the last weeks working at base?


Well, among other things we got a visit from our supplier of crew shirts, Lasse Söderquist from Woolrich (website dinskjorta.com) presented Micke with the new shirts team Kågered have ordered for the race season 2008. Above Micke posing in his new leather jacket designed by the same supplier.  



Micke and mechanic/truck driver Kenta pictured while servicing the Peugeot two seat dragster. They took it outside the work shop to test the engine (and the launch procedure on a nearby road.. (seems ok as far as we can tell!). Micke is certainly looking forward to test the dragster on a drag strip for the first time (due in mid-june at Hultsfred´s former airport where Peugeot will arrange a meeting for invited clients)

In general this and the past couple of weeks have included a lot of work with adjustments and servicing of all kinds of equipment, the top fuel dragster, our two double deck trailers, the two seat dragster and more..

On May 6th the racing trailer leave base and then await 4 days of roadshowing in the south of Sweden before continuing to the UK and Santa Pod for testing and the season opening FIA event. 


April 17th: The planned activities with Peugeot in Hultsfred next week have been rescheduled for mid-june. That provide us a few more days to prepare all equipment and it is needed. We have just got the tech inspections cleared for both race car and transporters and are currently working to prepare all equipment that we estimate we will need in England.

Transporters leave base on maj 6th and we perform a 4 day roadshow with Bahco in the south of Sweden before leaving with TT-line to Germany and further to the UK on may 11th.





April 14th: Team Kågered is happy to welcome Gelins KGK in Skara to our sponsor group. Gelins KGK was established already in 1942 and is a major supplier to the industry, farmers and automotive aftermarket. Product range include air compressors, fans, generators and more!  





April 7th: Micke spent all last week in Stockholm, attending the trade fair Nordbygg. Partners for the exhibition and sharing stand are System Edström Bilinredningar and SNA Europe/BAHCO. The Peugeot Expert was on display together with some selected Bahco Tools. A total of 54210 persons came to visit the exhibition in 4 days and 800 companies were among the exhibitors.









photo: On display the top fuel dragster in its altered design

March 23rd: We are satisfied with the 4 days the show have been opened. Great interest from the public for the top fuel dragster as well as the products on  display in our stand. One more day to go, expected to be a bit slower than the friday-sunday where in excess of 20.000 visitors/day showed up. We hope to load all equipment monday evening and return to base in Värna the same night.


photo: our clutch mechanic Edvin presented the Peugeot Expert and Bahco Tools at the show, beside talking about top fuel dragracing.




Mechanic Mika at the show by the "Expert"

March 21st: 2nd opening day at the show in Jönköping was busy and team Kågered had a great day with many visitors in our stand.

*****
We have taken time to add some new products to our online webshop- check out our 2008 racing t-shirts for adults, fine Peltor sunglasses, ear defenders and more..




photo: Team Kågered coordinator Åsa with Göran Persson from Bahco by the Peugeot Expert

March 20th: The BILSPORT Performance & Custom Motorshow opened thurdsay  for invited guests within the auto aftermarket. The show open its doors to the public friday and is open for four days, all Easter holiday.


photo: Jan Larsson from Gatorz Eyewear
displays fine sunglasses during the show


photo: Micke and Kenta in a meeting..


photo: part of our stand..


photo: Mickes top fuel chopper on display in BILSPORT´s stand



March 16th: The top fuel dragster has been repainted and prepared for the first show at Elmia, Jönköping, where it will be shown publicly for the first time in its new design. You will still recognise it, but we have brightened it up a bit with the help of the design and car paint pros at Billackeringen Mjölby. Photos from the stand will be published during the exhibition.    

We wish all our contenders that are racing at Santa Pod this Easter good luck!




Micke (far right) with some of the Ford Mustang owners visiting his workshop tuesday evening!

March 5th: Last evening Micke had a visit to his workshop by the local division of Mustang Club Sweden. It had been decided since months and around 25 persons had made the trip 25 km outside Linköping to Värna. A few hours was spent listening to Micke talking about drag racing, the car and his operation.

From participating tem Kågered crew members (Åsa, Max, Kenta and Micke) - Thank You all, it was a pleasure having you!
 



The special designed team Kågered Peugeot Expert. Only equipped with the best products..

February 25th: We have placed some more photos of the Peugeot Expert from Peugeot Transportfordon on the archive page. The great looking and well equipeed vehicle will be used by team Kågered as well as our  cooperating partners throughout the year.





February 22nd 2008: Here are some photos of the new Peugeot Expert service vehicle which will be used by team Kågered and our partners in connection with activities throughout the year.



This project is a cooperation between team Kågered, Peugeot Transportbilar, SNA Europe/Bahco, System Edström Bilinredningar, Billackeringen Mjölby, KAMA Fritid, AMALIE/Swelube, Qpax and Bilsport Magazine






INTERIOR STORAGE SYSTEM by System Edström Bilinredningar and equipped with tools from SNA Europe/Bahco 
Front, roof and sidebars are from Qpax









KÅGERED ANNOUNCES COOPERATION WITH
US BASED TUNER LANCE LARSEN


Larsen and Kågered at the NHRA race at Pomona 

February 8th: Micke Kågered has signed up US based top fuel tuner Lance Larsen to help sort out Kågered´s setup this season.

Micke comments; "I met Lance the first time in 2006, when I went to the US to potentially buy a top fuel dragster from the team he worked with. For different reasons I later decided it was wortwhile buying the dragster I already rented, so that was it for the time being..

.. Now, my co-crew chief Göran Edman has been monitoring Lance´s work for years and been impressed with what Lance´s team (with Clay Millican as the pilot) have achieved in IHRA, running very consistent at tracks seemingly similar to our tracks in Europe", says Micke.

"With the poor results we produced during the race season 2007, among the first things we decided on  when the last race was over in september, was to contact Lance. To seek his advice and assistance", Micke tells and continues;" I want to make it perfectly clear that this is not a step towards replacing Alan Jackson in anyway. Lance will be working alongside Alan and co-crew chief Göran Edman in this and hopefully it will contribute in changing performance to the better for us this season. We are not naive enough to think we can buy success in any way, the competition is way too hard for that.. it may still be a long way and for sure filled with hard work from every single crew member. However Lance can definately improve our odds of running better than we have. We have also invested a lot in parts, necessary for the improvement plan to work. Meeting suppliers is my main reason for the trip to the US, where I am currently watching the NHRA top fuel teams battle at Pomona", Micke concludes.

Lance Larsen has a long history of tuning in both NHRA and IHRA top fuel racing and is for the time being working together with Johnnie West for the top fuel team of Clay Millican (also including new top fuel pilot Jessie Harris). 


February 7th: Hectic days for Micke in the US, where he is mainly meeting parts suppliers. He will also attend two days at the Pomona Racetrack for the NHRA race before flying to Atlanta on monday, for meetings with additional suppliers.

At the office in Sweden also hectic days as our agenda is quickly filling up with requests from sponsors and organisers for exhibitions, roadshows and exhibition runs throughout the year (in top fuel and the two seater dragster).

We got a call from Mikael Larsson, who acquired team Kågered´s methanol funny car in 2007. The teams website have been launched at
www.mlarssonracing.com  We wish them all the best for the seaon, where Mikael Larsson hope to have  completed his funny car license in time for the FIA event in Finland and further on race at Mantorp Park.




The stand at the automässan in Gothenburg

January 21st: Our office is open again after a 2 weeks vacation and the Automässan in Gothenburg closed saturday january 19th- the show was performed in cooperation with SNA Europe , Swelube/AMALIE Motor Oil/Peak Antifreeze, Peugeot and Sytem Edström Bilinredningar.


Shown at the automässan was the special designed Peugeot Expert which has been equipped by Qpax, System Edström Bilinredningar, SNA Europe/Bahco and Swelube/Amalie and BILSPORT. Design by Billackeringen Mjölby.  



PEUGEOT AND TEAM KÅGERED IN COOPERATION 2008

January 3rd: Micke Kågered Racing and the swedish transport vehicle division of Peugeot have reached an agreement to work together on a number of activities and projects througout 2008.
The first joint project between team Kågered, Peugeot and also involving sponsors SNA Europe, System Edström Bilinredningar, Billackeringen Mjölby, KAMA Fritid and new sponsor Qpax is a custom designed Peugeot Expert special equipped by the participating companies. The car will be used on tour througout the year and in connection with races as a service vehicle by team Kågered. The exhibition Peugeot car is being prepared at this time and will be shown at the Automässan in Gothenburg for the first time. 

Micke Kågered comments; "Peugeot is one of the strongest brands on the market and they have a lot in common with some of our other sponsors, finding customers in very similar consumer groups. We have seen a rapid development of synergi effects from the cooperation within our sponsor group during 2007. Adding Peugeot to the group will I am sure help to further improve the concept for all parties involved".


Micke by the Peugeot double dragster- crew members Max and Andreas help service it.

Interestingly enough the swedish double dragster, previously owned by team Callin/Hässler (and frequently piloted by Susanne Callin) was accquired by Peugeot staff during the autumn 2007 and currently stays with team Kågered for service at the home base in Värna. Plans are Micke is to pilot the Peugeot double dragster during activities that do not collide with the FIA events.     




January 2nd: We are happy to include a new brand in our promotion programme for 2008. PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant products features a patented, advanced organic acid technology that can be used in all automobiles worldwide, regardless of make, model, year or original antifreeze color. Distributor in Sweden is Swelube, that also manufacture AMALIE Motor Oil.
.

Further information can be found at www.peakantifreeze.se (Sweden) or www.peakantifreeze.com (USA)



 

December 20th: The race dates for 2008 have been
posted based on the info we have today. Our intention is also to run at Santa Pod during the Easter Thunderball (not listed), but as the dates collide with a major exhibition in Sweden we are unsure at this time on how we best serve all parties involved. A decision is expected during january. 


December 18th: It is the last week before Christmas and there still remains three days of travel for Micke before he can take a break and enjoy some days od Christmas celebrations among family and friends.

We have not been reporting much the last month. It is not because no activities have been going on.. on the contrary. A lot has been and is going on behind the scene. We have been in meetings with our sponsors a lot for planning, we have also planned for what we hope will mean improvements performancewise in 2008. We hope to be able to tell you some more before long. 




The Kågered/Bahco stand at Bilsportmässan

November 26th: The last public show for this year ended sunday evening. Team Kågered enjoyed three busy days with many interested visitors at BILSPORTMÄSSAN in Stockholm, Sweden november 23-25th. Performed in cooperation with SNA Europe/BAHCO


Well-known graphic artist Jüri Kann presented a piece of art of Mickes dragster at the show. More info about Jüri Kann and his graphic services can be found at http://www.penhouse.se (presented in english) 



November 19: During the past weekend we had most of our crew members on site in Värna for some planning ahead. We also loaded all equipment for the coming exhibition in Stockholm this week.



November 14th: VIASAT Sport are currently broadcasting the European Drag Racing Championship 2007. Click on the link below to be taken to the schedule
http://www.powerracing.eu/broadcast_viasat.htm


November 7th: The 2007 FIA/UEM European Drag Racing Championships - Official Season Review DVD can now be ordered via our online store


Disc 1 - Cars (220 mins), Disc 2 - Bikes (120 mins) approx. Click HERE to watch a trailer!
 

October 31st: Today we launch our online webshop, which we have filled with some goodies to start with and will fill with more products continously. Looking for a christmas or birthday gift? Our replicas comes at reasonable prices and the postage is included! Check it out by clicking on the "online store" button to your right.

October 17th: WHAT´s UP? From the outside it may seem like a quiet time of year for us, but on the opposite.. this is the time we plan ahead, look at what we need to invest in over the winter, close deals with sponsors, communicate with the other teams in the class on issues common for all of us. We also have some public appearances coming up before we park the dragster and start working with maintenance. 

This week there is not much so much activity in the work shop as Micke is mostly in meetings. Next week Micke and three of our mechanics leave for the US, where they will attend the NHRA race in Las Vegas and the SEMA trade show after that.    



WHERE and WHEN CAN YOU SEE EUROPEAN DRAG RACING ON TV?

October 4th: TV broadcasters that can be seen in many countries (also outside Europe) send programs from the 2007 FIA European championship in drag racing. Click on image or follow link to see what channels that are confirmed to send (viewing times are available for some).
 


http://www.powerracing.eu/broadcast.htm





September 27th: Yesterday we went to Ljungstedtska gymnasiet (the biggest college) in Linköping, where we met with student mechanics under education. Some will be automechanics and some will choose to focus on  heavy duty vehicles. Micke told them about the technical parts of car and dragracing in general. He also stressed how important it is to learn english, swedish and maths well to be in motorsports. Our sponsor Bilsport also provided magazines for the students, which was much appreciated. Thanks to all participating students and teachers, we had a great day! The photos show two of the 5 groups we met with!






photo: Kenta gives directions to Lasse

September 24th: Our new storage container was fit in place yesterday by the great help of our friends. A tricky task as we did not want to remove any of the grown up birches, but it turned out just great. After painting it the same color as the work shop, we think it will blend in perfect in the environment.
 

photo: Micke, Max and Kalle monitor while Lasse slides the 4 tonnes heavy container in place


 

September 21st: Two days of roadshowing in Karlstad and Örebro went well and all equipment are back at base. Meanwhile, our new 40-foot storage container has arrived and we will start reorganising shortly.

The coming period include less public appearances, as we enter a phase of meetings, renewing contracts and planning ahead towards next season.  

Micke is also planning a trip to Las Vegas at the end of october to visit the SEMA show and preceeding NHRA drag racing event at Las Vegas.

Meanwhile team coordinator Åsa enter a university course in Linköping, learning more about economic analysis of public sport.




September 19th noon: Really crowded at Ahlsell´s in Karlstad today and the photo was sent from Micke & crew as they are preparing fireup of the car.



September 18th: Our racing trailer has been reloaded and prepared for the two day road show in Karlstad and Örebro that is coming up. Product experts from Bahco and 3M together will join Micke at Ahlsell in Karlstad wednesday 9-15 (fireup of dragster scheduled at 12.30). On thursday the same is scheduled for Örebro at Arvid Svensson´s location



September 13th: All equipment are safely back at base after the trip to England. The coming will be a weekend off from racing for the whole team. Before that a day or two  days spent on preparing for the arrival of a 40 foot container, to fit VIP-tents and other hospitality equipment. Next week we display the dragster and racing trailer in Karlstad and Örebro together with Bahco and 3M.     



September 9th: Elimination results have been posted on the  results 2007 page. New top fuel dragster champion 2007 Urs Erbacher from Switzerland, who also took the win at Santa Pod. Team Kågered had a misery weekend with malfunctioning parts and setup struggle. Micke was taken out by winner Erbacher already in the quarter finals. Our congrats to team Erbacher, the championship really took and unexpected turn when both championship leader Joon and 2nd placed Carter was out of competition in the quarter finals. For a full run by run report, please visit 

www.eurodragster.com
 




Micke previews on eurodragster

September 4th:  We have started the countdown towards the European Finals at Santa Pod this weekend. Read Mickes preview published on   Eurodragster today. Team Kågered is (unfortunately) not involved in the chase for the championship title this time. Currently in the lead is Lex Joon (NL) followed by Andy Carter (GB). The danish owned dragster that Carter is piloting was the championship winner in 2006, then with Håkan Nilsson in the cockpit.
Joon´s lead is 42 points which on the paper is pretty comfortable. However, this is top fuel racing and nothing is to be taken for granted. It will be really interesting to follow the battle on site. Team Kågered will of course do the best we can during the race at Santa Pod and look forward to some good, close competition!




Truck driver Kenta (left) and Micke
September 3rd: Our transporters left base sunday evening and travel with TT-line Trelleborg-Travemunde during monday. Plans are for arrival at Santa Pod mid day wednesday and the rest of the crew fly to England wednseday evening.




Thomas replaces..
August 27th: Our engine mechanic Gary Page is to pilot in nitro funny car at Santa Pod in connection with the European Finals. Our longtime crewmember Thomas (who has been taking a break from drag racing since june) will join us to fill in for Gary. Gary will also be with us much as times allows it.  
 

 ..Gary for the European Finals. Page to pilot in nitro funny car..




photo: Johan and Jessica from SNA Europe/BAHCO at the TRAILER Trucking Festival

August 27th: The Trailer Trucking Festival
Trailer Trucking Festival at Mantorp Park, Sweden was held august 24-25th. Team Kågered, Bahco and Hinz/Palfinger were in the same stand and showed products, the racing trailer and top fuel dragster. Team Kågered´s exhibition trailer was with Trailer Magazine for the event.


photo: Team Kågered´s Kent Karlsson dared take a ride in one of the Hinz/PALFINGER cranes on site. Here together with Benny from Hinz.


.. the view from 35 meter above the ground was reportedly breathtaking! Photo by Kenta

The prestigious Nordic Trophy competition was also performed at the Trucking Festival. The people´s choice and winner was the beautiful Shogun bulk truck & trailer owned by Mika Auvinen from Finland. Paint by our sponsor Mjölby Billackering! Our sincere congratulations to you all! 


the exhibition trailer were used for TRAILER magazine´s stand




Magnus Hinz from Hinz/Palfinger arrives with one of the 6(!) transporters on display at Mantorp
 
August 23th: Today we have been at Mantorp Park to build our stands for the Trucking Festival. The trade show is open friday noon-6pm and saturday 9 am-6 pm. Friday evening also includes the Nordic Trophy exhibition, where the best appearing transporters in the Nordic region are in competition for recognition and glory. Something really worth looking at! Hundreds of trucks/transporters have arrived and keep on arriving until the opening of the show. If you plan a visit to the Trucking Festival, make sure to stop by us for a chat or to take a look at the fine products presented by SNA Europe/Bahco and Hinz/PALFINGER 


Johan from SNA Europe/Bahco Tools assist in assembling the carpet in our stand


Micke and Kenta discuss the layout of the stand by the SCANIA Hyr truck




Mikael Larsson (right) is in the progress of taking a driver´s license in methanol funny car
 
August 20th: Micke spent most of the past weekend  at a smaller track outside Sundsvall, Sweden where he was monitoring and supporting team Mikael Larsson. Larsson, who accquired Micke Kågered´s methanol funny car some months ago, is in the process of taking a drivers license for the funny car, to be in competetion 2008. Progess were reportedly satisfying and according to the plan Micke & Micke had before the weekend. Mikael Larsson´s action was also monitored by a representative for the Swedish Autosport Association.
 


One of the thousands of photos in our archive.. Shot in England 2003- Uffe, Kjell and Robert by the dragster..

August 14th: Team Kågered´s photo archive consist of literally thousands of photos, collected over many years. Many of which we have taken ourselves, but also many photos shot by friends, fans and professional photographers. We have not been very good at publishing much (sorry.. as always it seem to be a matter of time). However, as a token of our good intentions we want to give you a better feeling about the fact that dragracing really is a team sport, involving many people and to show you some of the tasks we perform during a race..

Our good friend Christer Abrahamson (also the speaker during the race at Mantorp Park), went with us to the race in Alastaro Finland in july. He took a great number of photos while he was staying with our crew and we have put toghether a slide show of some of them. CLICK HERE if you want to see it. It is a Power Point slide show- a new window will open and ask if you want to open the file. click on the arrows to move between the images. After you are finished, just close the window.




August 13th: The exhibition trailer is back at base after a weekend at the Bilsport ClassicGrenseträff
in Halden, Norway together with Bilsport (sorry we don´t have a better photo to present). Some of the other top fuel teams are preparing to leave for Hockenheim and the race there this coming weekend. Our belief is that it is going to be a great race. Team Kågered has howvever chosen to focus on the Trailer Trucking Festival, an important exhibition for ourselves as well as many of our sponsors. We will be present with two trailers and the dragster at Mantorp Park and  continue our preparations for it this week. Part of our mechanic crew also work on getting the last parts race ready for the European Finals at Santa Pod three weeks from now.   


August 9th: We spent two weeks at Mantorp Park and will return in there later in august for the Trailer Trucking Festival and then again in late september for the STCC final. It is great to have one of europe´s finest racing tracks just around the corner, even if it does not mean we can go there for practice (extensive track preparations needed for that). We were present in connection with the event Bilsport Action Meet last weekend and it is fun to see that the interest for taking ones car to the strip and get real timing on it, is so popular. 




Part of team Kågered together with Magnus Samuelsson, world´s strongest man 1998
from the left: Max, Micke, Mika, Kenta, Magnus and Andreas

July 30th: 8.30 pm - The results from Mantorp Park have been posted on the results 2007 page. Disappointment for Micke Kågered when the blower belt came off already in the quarter finals and Micke was taken out of competition by Thomas Nathås.

Tommi Haapanen in our opinion the one who impressed most during this event with a quickest time of 4.88 and slowest time of 4.92!- well done Tommi & crew! Our congrats also to team Andy Carter to the new european time record of 4.732 and to team Erbacher for running a stunning speed of 505 km over the finish line!

This was the quickest ever top fuel field in europe, where only 8 hundreds of a second divided number 2 qualifier Urs Erbacher (4.80 sec) from number 7 qualified Tommi Haapanen (4.88 sec). Micke qualified as #4 with 4.83 seconds, which also is his personal best by one hundred of a second!


Micke launch at Mantorp.. photo by Ivan Sansom

Team Kågered disappointed with the early finish of the event, although content we have now evidently performed at a level that we believe is (and will be) required to have success in the top fuel dragster class.. for next event at Santa Pod and also looking ahead towards next season.

Our congratulations to Mantorp Park and everybody involved in providing us the best track ever- it certainly gave most classes a boost performancewise and at this time there is no doubt Mantorp Park is the quickest track in Europe. We will just have to wait and see if Santa Pod Raceway can continue this trend during the European Finals in september.

For a complete report with round to round notes from Mantorp, please visit www.eurodragster.com


In a good mood all weekend.. Johan (brother of team coordinator Åsa) with fiancée Annika were among our hospitality crew at Mantorp Park.



July 28th: 11 pm. late night again at Mantorp Park. No improvement for Micke saturday and he ended in the 4th position with 4.83 sec in the quickest ever top fuel field in Europe, where Andy Carter backed up a new european ET record with 4.73 seconds.

Only 8 hundreds of a second time difference between car #2-car (Urs Erbacher 4.80) to the #7 car in the field(Tommi Haapanen 4.88). Mickes last run saturday was a 4.98 sec run where the engine dropped a cylinder early and Micke shut off well before the finish line. Micke is up against Thomas Nathås from Norway in the quarter finals. Nathås ran 4.86 seconds and qualified as number five.

We have had close to 400 guests on site saturday, and we were happy to notice many stayed to see the last run in the evening although it got pretty late. In sunday´s elimination we all start from zero. First over the finish line is the name of the game at 9.30 am for Micke & co. Results are reported live by www.eurodragster.com




Micke goes 4.83 on friday -photo by Ivan Sansom

July 27th: 11 pm. Long day today at Mantorp Park.. The first day of qualifications was (of course) delayed due to rain showers. One round was completed at 5.30 pm, Micke currently 2nd quickest by running a 5.83 sec run at a speed of 467 km. Urs Erbacher quickest at this time with 4.80 seconds/505 (!) km. Micke was of course happy to finally see his crew´s hard work paying off, although the car lost power after 300 meters (one hurt head), so the run was less than perfect. We can show you two photos from the run as a courtesy of photographers Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes. For complete results we ask that you visit the Eurodragster website   


Same 4.83 run at 100 feet from another angle- photo by Rose Hughes


July 25th: 9.30 pm another day spent at Mantorp Park and we are pretty much ready, both to meet our guests and to get going with the qualifications on friday. We still await part of the crew to arrive during thursday- Emil, Gary and Terry. Press day today with both swedish tv channels SVT and TV4 present, assumedly news flashes a preview to be sent thursday.

Our plan for this weekend is to let the pros at Eurodragster report for us too, since we know we are in for a busy wekend. If time allows it, there may be late night reports from us too, but at this point we ask that you check www.eurodragster.com for results and comments from Top Fuel Dragster and of course all other classes.  




The Mantorp Park dragracing strip 2 days before event start..
July 24th: 11 pm- a busy day at Mantorp Park for team Kågered and our pit space building is almost done. Wednesday include showing the car for invited press and most our our mechanics crew will also join the rest of our staff. Weather forecast has improved for the weekend and tuesday was all "non wet" around the track area.   



July 23rd: 8 pm- we are in position with our two trailers at Mantorp. Weather cleared now and we will start building our pitarea tuesday. The dragster is on display during the press meeting wednesday afternoon.

Team Kågered coordinator Åsa has contributed with a general update/preview article for the event, which can be read at www.eurodragster.com


Transporters ready for departure to Mantorp..
 
July 23rd: 10 a.m. Our two double deck trailers have been literally stuffed with equipment needed for the racing operation as well as to build our VIP area at Mantorp Park. The two SCANIA trucks just pulled the trailers from our base in Varna and headed towards Mantorp. Pouring rain over the area now and forecasted to continue until late tonight. Our first mission is to get the transporters in position, wash them and if weather allows it, start mounting the awnings and VIP-tents. Better forecast for tomorrow, so we may decide to postpone some of our activities a bit. By thursday evening all will be set and ready for the arrival of guests on friday as well as the start of the race with two scheduled qualification runs on friday and two more on saturday.

We have posted the entry list for the event at Mantorp Park together with the preliminary time schedule


July 17th: A Shipment arrived today from Gary Burgin in the US with some parts we ordered for Mantorp. Await another shipment just the days before the event starts. That is the struggle for all teams really, you never know in advance what you are going to need for next race. Some parts we naturally keep in stock (like cranks, pistons and rods). Luckily, in top fuel dragracing we are a bit like a big family. Most teams try and help each other out to a great extent should it be needed during an event. Yes, it can mean you get beat by someone who just borrowed crucial parts from you, but generally we belive in the tale "what goes around comes around". Help people when you can and they will help you back. That is the way it works in our sport and it has worked great both ways for us (at every event actually)..   



July 16th: The preparations for the hospitality activity at Mantorp continues. While some crew members have enjoyed some time off racing after Finland, others have been working preparing parts and with the planning for Mantorp.

Starting tuesday and the rest of this week we work "hands on" with loading of all remaining equipment, and expect to move out to Mantorp on monday. Our staff for the event at Mantorp include some 40 people where 15 work with and around the race car as they normally would, while the focus for the rest is to care for our guests.



July 11th: The administration of the hospitality activity at Mantorp Park is on its way and all guests (invited both by us and our sponsors) can expect mail from us in the beginning of next week.

We have posted the entry list for the event at Mantorp Park together with the preliminary time schedule




Micke and Max preparing a spare engine to replace the broken one after round #1

July 8th: The European dragracing championship event has been on this weekend at Alastaro, Finland. A close field where 6 of the 8 qualified cars performed within 15 hundreds of a second! Rain over the area meant heavy delays on elimination day sunday, but all the credit to the FHRA crew who worked hard and efficient to get the track dry. Micke up against Andy Carter in the quarterfinals. Micke´s 5.13 against Carters 4.93 meant team Kågered was out of competition and Carter was on to the semi finals, together with Janne Ahonen (5.18), Lex Joon (5.04) and Urs Erbacher (4.82sec/502 km!). Göran Edman and Alan Jackson, who are in charge of tuning Mickes´s car comments; "We had two options and we choose to set up the car safe rather than aggresive, as we thought the track was not as good as last night with the bad weather we have been having. Our strategy was to get the car down the track decently quick and we did.. but it showed to be too defensive as the track  was better than we anticipated".

On the positive side  is that the car is performing better and better, we now have a better recipe and base to work from than we had last year when we constantly kept breaking parts. We have already now serviced and prepared the car for Mantorp and head back to Sweden monday morning.

The semifinals and final was cancelled due to rain!
Results from the quarter finals have been posted on the results page. Additional information from the event can also be found at www.fhra.fi 


July 2nd: Countdown starts for the race in Alastaro, Finland this upcoming weekend. Monday-tuesday we make the last preparations and load our racing trailer with all equipment. Arrival at track thursday morning. Qualifications is on friday-saturday with eliminations on sunday. We plan to report results and our comments every evening after all runs are completed (starting friday).

The entry list in Top Fuel at Alastaro (as we know it) is as follows;Thomas Nathås (N), Lex Joon (NL), Micke Kågered (S), Andy Carter (UK), Tommi Haapanen (SF), Janne Ahonen (SF), Urs Erbacher (CH), Siw Nystad (N), Jöran Persåker (SF)





 

June 28th: Today our professional designer Fredrik from Billackeringen Mjölby is here to mount decals on the front of the awning for the new exhibition trailer. We have fitted the awning on the trailer and currently work with the completion of it inside our workshop. It is also Fredrik, who designed the racing trailer as well as the look of Mickes dragster. This new trailer will be kept neutral in its paint scheme, but with a touch of the Kågered spirit here and there. Its first public appearance will be at Mantorp Park at the end of july, in connection with the FIA European Championship event. 


THERE IS ALWAYS TIME FOR SOME FUN..


Micke and Max having fun..
June 27th: Not much to report this week as we have a "quiet" week all by ourselves in the workshop. However we could not resist showing you this picture where our youngest mechanic Max surprised Micke by bringing his "homemade vehicle" to the workshop today. Max is a genius with moped engines and this "thing" turned out pretty quick although not advisable to run on public roads.. No, Micke could not resist trying it, although is not planning to the swap the dragster for it.. 


June 24th: We are back after a three day "midsummer" break among family and friends


June 8th: We have just drawn 5 names to recieve a pair each of our nitro racing mechanics gloves. One person in Denmark, one in the UK and three in Sweden (we email you separately)

Thanks for the entries and we hope the winners will enjoy the gloves. It turns out they are handy for other tasks as well, like gardening and they can be machinewashed for a longer life..   

This weekend the continued work with the exhibition trailer continues- the awning construction has just been completed and mounted, electricity is being installed, the exterior decorating is getting there..  


Introducing our Nitro Racing CH3NO2 allround mechanics gloves..


June 1st: Our brand new Nitro Racing CH3NO2 mechanics gloves comes in five colours. For ladies/youth we made them Bright pink, Apple green and Turquoise. For the larger sizes we produced them in Dark grey and Black.




June 1st Our transporters are back at base and this weekend unpacking, cleaning and reorgansing of everything in the trailer is on the agenda.



Our Gatorz quiz has closed and we have randomly drawn a winner among the many right answers (the answer by the way was 11).

The winner is Paul Sampson of Polesworth in the UK!

We will be happy to place the pair of Gatorz eyewear in the mail to you shortly together with an signed autographcard from Micke. Our congratulations and thanks to all for participants. We will think of a new quiz with a fine prize and launch it shortly, so check back next week if you wish to take a new chance! 


The pair of Gatorz sunglasses goes to ..Paul Sampson in the UK!


Transporters booked Travemunde-Trelleborg with TT-line. Arrival to Linköping from the UK on thursday
May 29th: 7.30 pm local time
We returned to Sweden tuesday evening and could note that it was a great deal warmer here than the in UK we left this morning. The transporters currently in Belgium on their way back to Sweden with estimated arrival on thursday night. With the dragster race ready, we will devote our time to complete our new exhibition trailer. Long time crew member Thomas did his last appearance with us in England. Regrettably other commitments means he do not have the time needed to spend on racing any longer. Still good friends we will of course see each other off the track once in a while. Our skilled mechanics Gary Page and Terry Giles will manage Thomas duties on the engine during the races from now on.




photo: Frenetic activity around the car when we were in for an engine change in between runs saturday

Monday May 28th: The eliminations at Santa Pod Raceway was cancelled at 1 p.m. local time after rain had constantly been pouring down for more than 24 hours. The two runs that were run saturday have been posted on the results page. 



May 20th: SUMMARY TEST WEEKEND
Sunday afternoon and we have finished the two days testing here at Santa Pod raceway in England.


Alan (left) and Emil take a moment to look through data and decide the changes in setup in between runs.

Emil comments on the weekend; "We have a lot of new components on the car and have been testing some different setups this weekend. A tiny change in setup may result in a huge difference in behaviour of the car at the track and we have seen some of that only today. The goal is of course to have the car go smooth and quick down the track without tire shakes. So what we do is to laborate with different setups to the clutch and fuel system among other things". He continues; "this is one of the rare opportunities we have to test setups that would not be the first ones we have in mind during a race weekend. Hopefully the information we have gathered and evaluated this weekend will show useful in what lies ahead of us next weekend".


Mia and Robert worked together on the clutch and were in a good mood throughout the weekend.


Max doubles for Micke in the cockpit during the transport from the pit area to the startline.


May 12th: Here are some photos from today´s road show with Hinz/PALFINGER in our base town Linköping


The setting was by the beautiful castle of Bjärka-Säby


Magnus Hinz (left) is the president of Hinz Fösräljnings AB that manufacture the vast range of PALFINGER products in Sweden

Micke represented the team together with Lill, Kenta and Åsa (as always behind the camera). Their new Gatorz sunglasses that were delivered only this morning came in handy this bright and sunny day. 


Micke together with another sponsor- Billackeringen Mjölby that produced the dragster picture for the trailer. Left owner Håkan and far right designer Fredrik (the dragster photo is by Stefan Boman and the material provided by 3M)    


May 11th: We have just loaded the dragster for the exhibition here in our home town Linköping saturday at Bjärka/Säby Nya Slott between 11-15. If you are in the neighbourhood you are very welcome to come an visit us!

Two weeks to go to the first European Championship event at Santa Pod Raceway in England. We have placed the official entry list HERE. Ten top fuel dragster teams have entered, wherof Micke is one out of two swedish drivers (the other one being Jöran Persåker). For more information about the track and the event, please visit www.santapod.com


May 9th: Updates have been made to our sponsors page to include an insight to our ideas and concept when working with sponsorship, which is one of our key tasks and we find it highly interesting!

We know we live in a constantly changing world. What works today, may not work tomorrow. Some facts however, seem to remain fundamental and unchanged over time. Having a clear concept idea, sticking with it over time and refining it has taken us to where we are today. Feel free to share, learn from or disagree with our thoughts on sponsorship!  



May 9th: The tech inspection yesterday went well and our Irish Wilson double deck racingtrailer has now been reregistered into the Swedish system. It will make things easier for us when it comes to insurances and not least the annual tech inspections.. Micke spent his day in Örebro today, finishing the last machine work needed by the help of our supplier and sponsor Custom Racing. Their knowledge and machine park is a resource that can not be praised enough!
 



May 7th: Above is a photo from the exhbition in Anderslöv we participated in May 4-5th at NyaBilverkstaden together with BAHCO.

This week the last updates are made to the race car. It may seem as we spend an awful lot of hours on updating and we are (and we have). This investment in updating was the key when we decided to buy this car instead of a turn key combination from the US. We hope and gather we will get more value for the money this way and maybe more important, we do not have to start from scratch completely. We have improved things, but it is still the same car Micke is used to and feels confident piloting and that too is important.
 

"THE FUNNY CAR HAS LEFT THE BUILDING"

Mikael Larsson (right) will operate Micke Kågered´s funny car starting 2007.. To the left team mechanic Jonas from team Larsson

May 2nd: Team Kågered´s beloved methanol funny car moved out of our base in Linköping the past weekend. Its new home is with Mikael Larsson in Sandviken, ca one hours drive north of Stockholm. Kågered and Larsson have signed a contract, that means Larsson operates the metahnol funny car from now on with necessary assistance and knowledge provided by team Kågered. Micke Kågered comments; "Mikael and I have been in contact  on a regular basis for more than a year and has finally sorted the last details out, which is great. Not only does the car stay in Sweden, but we also get another competitive car back into the methanol class on a longterm basis", says Micke and continues "do I feel sad about leaving the car in someone elses care? Not really. I have full confidence in Mikael Larsson and his crew and I will also be highly involved providing my knowledge until they feel they get to the point where they can manage it all by themselves. I consider it a longterm commitment and am looking forward to help getting a new team going. I also hope to have help from some of our skilled mechanics, like Göran "Emil" Edman, who has really been the person in charge of the tuning of the car. I know Mikael´s goal for his "rookie" year is to get his FIA license and get to know the car, after that my hope is that we will see him run the full FIA series in 2008".



April 23rd 2007: Two weeks of road showing with Hinz has been completed with good results. Now that all equipment is back in Linköping, we continue to work with the last details on the dragster, for once we wait for a new computer to arrive within the nearest week. The project with our new exhibition trailer is proceeding nicely and it is a bit like a puzzle where you need to fit one piece at a time after having custom designed everything. Doors, awning, interior etc. We continue this work up to the point where we travel to England in mid may. The exhibition trailers will be showed at Mantorp Park in connection with the race there in july. After that awaits three exhibitions in august-september together with the Bilsport and Trailer Magazine´s.
 


April 18th: Busy day at Stigs Center in Gothenburg today. Off towards Örebro this evening



April 17th: New day, new town to visit for our road show. Today it is Borås.

 
April 16th: Above a photo of the location for today´s road show in Jönköping



April 16th 7a.m: After two days of work shop activities, the equipment is ready to roll again. Micke secures the dragster and the transporters are off for a 90 minutes drive to Jönköping, today´s road show location.






April 15th: A weekend in team Kågered´s work shop. Mechanic Mia sorts out bolts, while Emil takes time to improve details on the dragster.
 


The Scania Hyr truck is Kenta´s baby and after a week on the road it needs caring for too..






April 13th: Växjö was the road show location friday and above you can see the setting for this day. Eager mechanics await the return of the dragster to its base in Linköping, where pre season activities will be on going all weekend. Monday morning the transporters are off for a two hour drive to Jönköping where next week´s road show have its start. 




April 12th: A bright sunny day in Kalmar, where the road show is stationed today thursday. Above a picture from the preparations this morning. Location Rasta Kalmar.




April 11th: ..and the next town to get a visit was Halmstad, the location being Ejnarssons Svets. Show by day and transport by night, that is the idea and all vehicles by that continue towards Kalmar wednesday night. Then awaits Växjö on friday before team Kågered´s transporters are brought back to base for  continued maintenance of the dragster saturday-sunday.





April 10th: First day of the Hinz/Palfinger road show and Micke is in Malmö. Pictured is the famous Malmö skyline with the "turning torso" building together with team Kågered´s transporters and the Palfinger equipment that are on display. Tonight the trip go to Halmstad, which is tomorrow´s road show location.   



April 3rd: Updating of dragster, road show, exhibition trailer.. a lot on the agenda, but we are getting there.. The dragster is going on tour next week with Micke and Hinz/Palfinger, which means a break in the mechanics work on it for two weeks. "Time runs quickly, but we are pretty where we planned to be in our pre season work with the car and spare parts", says Micke. During the Easter holiday we load everything and head to Malmö, which is the first stop on our road show. We have updated the list with locations.


March 22nd: Our team page have been given a face lift and we have added some more information about our crew and the constellation of team Kågered the race season 2007! Dragracing is just like football, you need to hang on to your best players and occasionally  switch positions and players!


 

March 21st: TIME TO CONVERT?
There is always a good sense of humour in our team and sometimes it appears most unexpectedly. Notice anything strange with this picture? Mechanics Thomas and Mika decided it was time to provide Micke with a jet dragster.. The question is only if the tape will be strong enough to hold the pipe?? 


March 17th: What goes on in our workshop on a regular day?

photo: Max preparing a head..
Team Kågered´s youngest mechanic Max is only 16.. He came to us in 2006 and now divides his time between school and a place as an apprentice with Micke. On tuesdays and fridays he joins Micke to work with the race car engines or whatever is needed. Young, but already skilled from several years of moped tuning, Max has rapidly got the hang of the technical side of dragracing and is by now pretty used to handle heads, cranks, pistons and rods, blocks and other fun stuff you find on a race car engine!  


photo: Micke preparing rods & pistons..
As for Micke, the moving of the workshop to his premises in Linköping, means he is in charge of the day to day work around the race car in a way he has not been while the dragster was located in Eskilstuna. A heavier work load in a sense, but also on top of things. Knowing Micke as a very thorough and dedicated  person, the rest of the team gather this is  just the way he likes it.. and he is not alone.

Part of the team is highly involved in the day to day matters, where for instance Emil and Åsa order parts, handle logistics etc. Kenta, together wih Micke and Åsa is highly involved in the planning of the road shows and exhibitions. During the weekends mechanics Mika and Thomas make the two hour drive from Eskilstuna to join us in the workshop. The british members of the team including Alan Jackson keep in contact with the rest of us and together we make sure preparations are going according to plan and at this time they are!


March 6th: We have finally come around to (almost) finishing a new page we have had in pipeline for a long time.. Our new media page presents information about some of the medias that cover dragracing. We also present to you some of the photograpers (or rather photojournalists) we work with. They generously fill you in on how they work, what camera equipment they use and they have also selected three photos each related to team Kågered´s operation with their personal comments. We hope you will enjoy this new feature and perhaps find your way to forums you did not know of before! 

March 6th: Just remembered we promised to show you the new design of the back of the trailer. So here it is.. (click to enlarge!) The photo we used is shot by swedish photographer Stefan Boman of Bomanfoto.

If you want at better look at it, you are most welcome to come and see us live at any of the numerous events we will be out on this year (starting after Easter) The agenda will be updated a bit further on with road show dates and more..


March 5th: We are back from Gothenburg and the motorshow. Our stand was well visited during all four days. A big thank you to all who came to see us during the show and of course to our cooperating partners Bahco, 3M, Amalie Motor Oil and Sector Alarm. Now we enter a phase where we will work more intensively with the race car and all equipment, mainly in our new work shop in Linköping. Our public appearances continues in april again, starting with two week long road show in Sweden. More on this to follow.. 


March 1st: First day of the Gothenburg Motorshow is over and we bring you some photos from our stand;

Sören and Ronnie from 3M show the prototyp of the new Speedglas welding helmet among other things (here shown together with Mickes racing helmet)


The dragster and transporters on display..


Bahco show a vast selection of
auto related tools


"Did you know that.. Dragsters can reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.."

february 26th: We have updated the dragracing page with plenty of "worthless but fun facts", some of which you may have seen before. If not, we advise that you read and review. Top fuel dragracing is really something else, don´t you think?!




Micke oversees the mounting of his dragster image

february 22nd: We got the transporters back from paint yesterday, but there was no time to cover the back of the trailer with Micke´s dragster at that time.. so we brought Mattias and Fredrik from Billackeringen to our new shop instead (see above)- we will keep you waiting for the result, but can tell you we gather it will be awesome! The photo was shot by top photographer Stefan Boman and even at this giant size the photo is amazingly good. We promise to bring you the result in a day or two.. Behind the racing trailer, you can maybe glimpse the new trailer we recently accquired. The plan is to keep it exclusively for hospitality and road show purposes. It is "raw", so we start designing from scratch and hope to finish what is needed in time for the race at Mantorp Park (at the end of july). 



february 20th: What´s up? There has been one week of silence from us, but we are a bit like "busy bees" at the moment.. Micke spends a great deal of time on racing engines (belive it or not, but he is good at it!) With the expert help of Custom Racing Services, blocks, heads, cranks etc are being thoroughly checked and prepared. The racing trailer is still in Mjölby.. we decided to do a little something extra while it is in for minor paint work. Micke wanted his full sized dragster on photo on the back of the trailer, so that is what is cooking right now. The experts at 3M adhesive is of course helping us out here and Billckeringen in Mjölby is producing and mounting it all. When the transporters are back in our new work shop, we will start preparing and load all equipment needed for next week´s motorshow in Gothenburg. 




Truck driver Kenta ready for take off from Värna this morning..
february 12th: Today the transporters are off to Billackeringen in Mjölby, a 40 minutes drive from our base in Värna. Updates of paint and sticker layout is on the agenda for the double deck trailer all week.

We are continously booking road show activities together with our sponsors for the months of april, may, june and september. We are in for a busy exhibition year, which is just the way we prefer it!


MICKE STICK BY THE BAHCO DRAGSTER and IMPROVES IT!

Photo: Micke by the dragster he has faith in

february 5th: It may seem like nothing much has been going on in team Kågered when it comes the "dragster issue" this winter. However, a lot of acitivity behind the scene can not be reported until all information is official. It is no secret we were unhappy with the way last season turned out and we decided as soon as the last race in september -06 was finished, that some circumstances had to change in order for us to run our operation in a better way. The first thing we did was to start the building project, to concentrate our operation to one location instead of 3 (two in Linköping and one in Eskilstuna) and we are already pleased with the outcome of that. Even if we have not yet started to work in our new machine shop, we can see we made the right decision in building it.
 
We can now finally spread some more light of other changes as well.  Micke went to the US in november to check out some race cars. There has been numerous options on the table for review within the team since then. What it all lead up to is that we have decided to stick with the Bahco Express dragster, but with the difference we buy the car after having rented it for some seasons. The difference? We get 100% control of the car and parts supply, with both full responsability and full freedom. Micke comments on his choice of race car; "the cars I looked at in the US was fine working units, but the chassis had many runs on them. Now our chassis ( that was built by Mats Eriksson in 2005) is probably one of the freshest around and in the end that counts for something, both when it comes to value and safety matters". So what Micke, with help from his key mechanics is doing at the moment is to see that we update the car, in numerous ways, all to stand a chance as good as any of the other teams in the battle for the 2007 top fuel dragster championship title. Owning the car means we are in full control of what goes on it and also of the spare parts supply.


Photo: Gary Page (near left) is a veteran in nitro dragracing, both as a pilot and mechanic. Here pictured with Thomas and Robert (to the right)

The crew constellatiion 2007 will be pretty much the same as last season, with Alan Jackson and Göran Edman working side by side on the tuning. We are also happy that Gary Page and Terry Giles from the UK have expressed they are positive to contine working alongside our swedish crewmembers. They both form a valuable addition to our mechanics team with their long time experience in nitro dragracing.

All in all we are all pretty excited about the coming race season, which we have not yet decided 100% where and when to start. "With plenty of requests from our sponsors for road show activities this spring, we have to keep it an open matter for a while longer until the agenda is set for the months of april and may", says Micke.


january 26th: The vacation is now definately in the past and this week has been a busy one, just the way we like it!

A lot is going on, among other things we are currently looking on what activities we will be doing this year together with our sponsors. The first major appearance is coming up in the beginning of march at the Gothenburg Motorshow .

We have updated the agenda with some new information and most of Micke´s time the coming weeks is devoted to sponsor meetings and the completion of the building project. We hope to move in all equipment by the end of february.  


january 22nd: Micke is back in Sweden after two weeks vacation with friends. In his absence, the machine shop project has proceeded according to plan and we now have an actual building on our premises in Värna. Not finished enough to move all equipment to yet, but we are getting there..

As for the travel destination for Micke & co´s vacation? Take a look at what we find some beautiful and characteristic scenery. Can you guess what country the photo is from? Yes?


No? Would you like to know where the trip went and see more photos? Well..ok then, click here!


january 3rd: GENERAL UPDATES
We have updated the race calendar with the dates for 2007. Also added is a separate contact page incl a map of the location of our new work shop (see building status of today to the right).
We have moved all info dating earlier than september 2006 to the archive page.


january 2nd: HAPPY NEW 2007! First working day on the new year and the holidays are over for this time. Coming up shortly is however a two weeks vacation abroad, which we are looking forward to. When the trip was booked in May last year january seemed to be a good month for some time off racing. The last months have added up to our work load, but we hope to return with fresh minds and ready to take on the tasks we have on hand- exhibitions, preparations for the race season and the move of our operation to new facilities.


december 25th 2006: In Sweden we celebrated Christmas yesterday. As we lack snow completely, the christmas feeling was missing, but we did see Santa and we got a lot of christmas gifts. Christmas day is also a holiday in Sweden (as is Boxing day), but we have chosen to dedicate these days to working with our machine shop project, which we are eager to complete. In our favour is the lack of snow and very mild weather which keep Micke and his crew going day after day. The last part will however be completed by a contractor, starting mid-january.

What else? We have completed most sponsor agreements for 2007 and we are happy to say we will keep on working with 99% of our current sponsors and also add some new companies that fit well in together with the rest. A lot is going on behind the scene this time of year, both when it comes to the racing operation and the planning of exhibition activities for 2007. We hope to be able to bring some light on those issues as well before long..


 

Micke says Thank You all! Click to enlarge!

TEAM KÅGERED THANK SPONSORS IN BILSPORT MAGAZINE.. december 13th 2006: We have a tradition of placing an advertisment in the BILSPORT Magazine every year and this years "Thank You ad" was published just recently. We work with a number of fine companies on an allyear round basis. They all contribute to our many successful appearances this year (mostly off track) and make our work very pleasant both on and off the race track. Thanks for this season and we already look forward to some exciting activities currently in the pipeline for 2007!

Goods for our new machine shop unloaded by Kenta

december 12th 2006: Micke returned to Sweden today after a business trip abroad. The dragster was brought back safely to Linköping a couple of days ago after its trip to Bahrain. We are now getting ready for the big day this thursday, when the structure for our shop will be raised by the professionals at Lindab. In preparation, trucks have been delivering parts for the building to us the latest days and more is still to come. We enjoy the fact we are soon one step closer to moving our operation to the new building conveniently located on  Micke´s premises in Värna outside Linköping.






December 1st 2006: We are happy and proud
to include Hinz Försäljnings AB among our sponsors. HINZ, which is a family owned company, was founded in 1973 and is the agent and distributor for PALFINGER in Sweden- PALFINGER is a global market leader in cranes, lifting, loading and handling systems. Hinz head office is located in Borlänge Sweden. Team Kågered and Hinz will cooperate when it comes to both exposure and activities in 2007.
 





We had an exclusive tour in the engine room on board M/S Cinderella. Here Christer from System Edström Bilinredningar also drag racing speaker at Mantorp Park, took a closer look at a piston, ring and rod.. and we thought the dimensions of our racing engines were big?!
  
December 1st 2006: We are back after two days conference on board Viking Line´s ship M/S Cinderella. The passed season was discussed and also we looked ahead towards 2007, where we will continue to develop the exhibition concept and make some major changes to stand a better chance in the fight for the top fuel dragster championship title. More about that to follow later as some decisions are still pending.     
 
November 27th 2006: We got back from the BILSPORTMÄSSAN fair late last night and we are pleased with our weekend, where we met a lot of nice people in our stand! Below are some photos from the motorsport fair that team Kågered participated in together with our sponsors BAHCO  and AMALIE Motor Oil.
 
In the absence of the top fuel dragster (which is at sea on its way from Bahrain), we showed the funny car in our stand.


Micke flanked by Dan from AMALIE Motor Oil and team Kågered crew chief Göran Edman.


Team Kågered´s Kent Karlsson was in charge of the well appreciated tire change competition where fine prizes from BAHCO was at stake!


Our stand at the BILPSORTMÄSSAN fair had to be  spacious and big to fit all equipment we wanted to display!




Thumbs up from Micke Kågered as the concrete is poured in the mould
November 14th 2006: We have come one step further with our building project as the concrete was laid today. You may wonder why we make a big deal of it, but as the project has been developing we have really started to long for all advantages it will mean to move all our equipment to one place.  


.. Micke took a closer look at the concrete truck


..and already after 3 hours the concrete was in place
Well done guys!


NITRO POWER FOR ALL..
November 8th: Now available for mail order worldwide.. check out our popular NITRO t-shirts (right column this page!!)



October 31st: We have posted a photo gallery from the visit to Bahrain. Thank you Tog at www.eurodragster.com for letting us use some of your photos too! Check out the photos HERE!




Team Kågered was represented in Bahrain by from left: Emil, Thomas, Mika, Åsa and Micke- here posing with hospitality staff during the press meeting.    

October 30th: We are back in Sweden after a week long trip to Bahrain, a stay we enjoyed a lot both on and off the race track. We experienced a really friendly atmospehere and good cooperation between the organisers and everybody involved in the  top fuel circus. Micke found the track enjoyful to run at and real safe. By setting a new track record with 5.14 seconds, Micke is currently quickest in dragracing in Bahrain as well as the Gulf region. Had we continued the festival, laid down a few more sessions on the track the chances are good we would have run in the 4.90´s, says Micke and continues- now the organisers at the Bahrain International Circuit has placed Bahrain on the dragracing map once and for all- the track is not yet faster than the best track in Europe, which is only natural as it is still a young track. It clearly has a lot of potential and I would love to come back on another occasion to continue the work we started this passed weekend.



October 22nd:  Bahrain is on the agenda october 23rd-29th for part of the team. Micke fly to Bahrain together with mechanics Mika, Thomas, Emil and coordinator Åsa. Alan Jackson is also present and will be tuning the Bahco Express top fuel dragster as usual. 8 top fuel drivers from five nations take part in the show, held at the Bahrain International Circuit. A gigantic project where all cars, spare parts and tools have been shipped from Europe.

We will not be updating the website while in Bahrain, but updates from the track are available on Europe´s no#1 dragracing news forum Eurodragster . Tog from Eurodragster joins the crews in Bahrain exclusively to make sure you can follow the action from the track, including results, pictures, interviews and more. The top fuel dragster show is on thursday and friday night october 26-27th.
 


Micke Kågered was in Bahrain in march this year as one of two drivers to make appearances in connection with the F-1 race. Micke says the arena is just fantastic and the organisation first class. His hopes are all teams will be able to put on a good show and that everything will work out smooth with the "in between runs maintenance". All crews are limited to half the number of mechanics we normally have on a race, but as we are really one big family at this event everybody will work together in order to make the cars perform as best as the track condition allows. The heat is tremendous during daytime and the show is scheduled to be run at night. 

We will be back with a personal report on our return to Sweden.




Photo: Stefan Boman/Bilsport Magazine

Pictured: The car deck onboard the M/S Cinderella where team Kågered held the initial presentation.

October 20th: Just a brief note and a photo from one of the more odd acitivities this year, held oct 12-13th. Odd in the sense it took place on a ship and a temporary showroom had been prepared by VIKING LINE at car deck. The activity was organised by the Swedish Transport Group and team Kågered togehter with BAHCO and 3M was invited as special guests.  


October 16th: General Update- this time of year a lot is going on behind the scene.. Plans are made, agreements are reached etc. A lot still remain unofficial and maybe it seems not much is going on if you visit our website now and then.. but believe us, plenty is going on!


BILSPORT MAGAZINE-latest issue #21

MICKE- A WRITER? One of Micke´s tasks is to write a column in the scandinavian BILSPORT magazine on a regular basis and a couple of days ago, a new issue was published. If you want to read what Micke had to say, some of his "after season thoughts" and what is ahead, we have also placed the content of the article in both swedish and english.    
 

October 3rd: Team Kågered´s business partner Gatorz Europe have just launched a new website, featuring most models of their one of a kind aluminium framed sunglasses at www.gatorzeurope.com Micke is also presented on Gatorz website, click this link to check it out!
 
TEAM KÅGERED- the MOST FIT CREW in 2007?

Pictured: crew chief Göran Edman together with mechanics Max(center) and Edvin (far back). Micke supervises the excersise session.

October 2nd: The passed weekend we had all the swedish crew on visit in Linköping. Micke started this team activity by bringing his mechanics to WorldClass gym where he normally excersise 3 times a week. After that, some jacuzzi and a party that included a live rock band. We had a great time!

 
Part of the crew gathered on the site where Micke has just started the work that willl become a new work shop. Pictured from the left: Peter, Thomas, Mia, Kenta, Mika, Micke and Emil.


WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY UP TO?

It takes many different talents to be an entrepreneur..

September 22: Micke and truck driver Kenta just got back from a road show last night and today, friday they have a completely different task on their agenda. We have just recently decided to concentrate our operation to Linköping and we lack indoor space.. So what to do? Micke has been wishing to build a workshop by his house for a long time. He already has the land and now the time seems right. Pictured above is part of the site where the building will be raised. Micke and Kenta are taking turns drilling in preparation for the explosive work that is scheduled this weekend. Next step for Micke is to decide on which brand of building to go for and that is happening within a few days too. 




An eye catcher on the road? The Scania truck and double deck trailer
September 21: Micke and Kenta have been in Karlstad and Örebro, Sweden together with Bahco on a mini road show tuesday and wednesday. Thursday they were with our sponsor System Edström Bilinredningar in Stockholm. The funny car, chopper and transporters that were on display as the dragster has been shipped to Bahrain. 




Truck driver Kenta has become an expert on loading -above; dragster and more to be shipped to Bahrain

September 13th: The dragster, tools and spare parts were loaded in a container yesterday and will be sent out of Sweden within a few days. The destination is Bahrain where Micke is one of eight top fuel drivers to participate in a show race late october. In the absence of the dragster, we perform the upcoming road show activities with the methanol funny car.

We have placed the final FIA European championship points standings here . Micke Kågered ended 6th in the top fuel dragster category. It is the first time since his start in methanol funny car 1989 that Micke is outside "top 3"


COMPLETED; THE FIA EUROPEAN FINALS

Micke at the Santa Pod track earlier this season

September 10th 2006: The European Finals at Santa Pod was completed late sunday afternoon and the results have been posted. Team Kågered was taken out in the quarter finals, the two gigants of the event in top fuel dragster were Urs Erbacher and Håkan Nilsson. Nilsson is also the new european champion. Our sincere congratulations to Håkan, Per, Karsten and the rest of the crew. You have really set a standard this season, a standard that anyone who wants to be a winner next season must match. There are already some teams that are capable of running in the 4,70- 4,80´s and that is what it will take to be competitive in top fuel dragster. 

For Micke Kågered and the crew it is just to try and put this season behind us and move on, regroup and make plans for the race season 2007..
 
But, first awaits the show race in Bahrain and the dragster is being shipped out from Sweden as soon as it returns from the UK.

WHEN IT ALL BEGAN..

No doubt the interest for race cars have been there for Micke since a young age. We recently found the proof of it in an old newspaper, featuring an article about a rally- Micke´s first.. He was aged six then and the car had been designed by Mickes father. Maybe it is no wonder after all, Micke later came to turn his longtime hobby into a full time career!


A MISSILE WAITING FOR LAUNCH..


September 2006: A rare angle for a photo. The Bahco Express top fuel dragster with Micke Kågered in the cockpit waits at the starting area at Santa Pod Raceway to get access to the track, while the track crew make final track preparations. Photographer Remco Scheelings took this opportunity to take some "rare angled" photos and this is one.. from the European Finals sept-06.




 A SNAKE´s NEST??
September 2006: This is what it looks like under the panel, just in front of the cockpit on the dragster. Looking at the picture we find it pretty amazing really that there are rarely failures connected to the lines,cables and hoses you see above. You wonder what they all are for? Maybe we can explain that another day..  
Photo by crew member Kenta



"We have tons of photos.."- This one shot by Ivan Sansom. Spectacular?   

August 24th 2006: We have updated the photo bank with all new, fresh photos. We have literally tons of photos, but never seem to find the time to publish many of them.. but at least this is a start.. and we also updated some photos on our team page.




Micke and Kalle discuss a new design for next season?
 
August 21 2006: Part of the team were on an exhibition the past weekend together with 3M and Nilfisk ALTO The location was Clas Ohlsson´s head office in Insjön SWEDEN (close to everybody in Sweden know what Clas Ohlsson is). Pictured above is Micke together with best friend Kalle, who joined the Kågered crew this weekend. 3M arranged a drawing contest for the children and Micke got plenty of inspiration and new ideas from looking at the numerous drawings of the dragster!
Products from 3M and Nilfisk ALTO were on display as were of course the Bahco Express top fuel dragster..

 
Team Kågered, 3M and Nilfisk ALTO participated in Insjödagarna at Clas Ohlsson´s..



FIA EVENT IN NORWAY COMPLETED
August 7th 2006: The eliminations in the FIA European Championship event at Gardermoen Raceway in Norway was completed sunday.

Micke Kågered had two good days of qualifying, however was taken out in the quarter finals after an engine failure. "We kicked a rod half track with massive damage to the engine as a result", said Micke and continues. "Things just don´t go our way at the moment, we did everything right this time as we did at Mantorp, but it doesn´t take us very far in the competitions which is of course frustrating". 

Complete  results  in top fuel dragster together with our commentsafter have been posted.


Mechanic Edvin prepares a set of new tires - team Kågered´s pit space at Gardermoen in the background



FIA EVENT AT MANTORP PARK COMPLETED
GREAT PERFORMANCE BY MICKE AT MANTORP DID NOT DO THE JOB..

Photo by Remco Scheelings

July 31th 2006: Micke Kågered had a great weekend at Mantorp Park, Sweden up until the point where he ran a 4.91 in the quarter finals and was outrun by Håkan Nilsson. "A shame it had to be already in the quarter finals I met Håkan", said Micke. "That great side by side run would have made a perfect final". Håkan Nilsson qualified number 8 but got control of the traction problems just in time for the eliminations.
Team Kågered for the first time this year had a car that worked brilliantly. Qualified as number one with a 4.94 second run and improved it in the quarter finals by running a 4.91 run against Nilssons 4.86. The side by side race between the two of them were the quickest in top fuel in Europe this season. 

"With all great people backing me up at my home track I am of course disappointed we did not make it all the way to the final, but I can´t really say we could have done something in a different way to change the scenario", says Micke and continues "we now finally have a car that runs well and react to changes in the way we want, so now I really look forward to next weekends race in Norway!"


Micke on track put on a good show while it lasted at Mantorp. Photo by Remco Scheelings

Micke made it into the elimination field in methanol funny car too, but was outrun by event winner Jörgen Johnsson in the quarter finals. Micke thought it was great fun to pilot the funny car again for the first time in three years. Niclas Andersson, who piloted the car for Micke last season, followed all Micke´s races with the funny car closely and said it felt kind of strange not to be in the car. Niclas pilots a ProMod car this season, but was also taken out in the quarter finals at Mantorp.


Crew Chief Göran Edman watch Micke´s run in the funny car closely. Photo by Remco Scheelings

We would like to thank all guests invited by BAHCO, 3M, AMALIE Motor Oil, Mitutoyo, System Edström, Migatronic and TT-line for spending a day at the race track with us. We enjoyed having you all there!

With the good help of a massive crowd of friends, we managed to load our two trailers and all equipment already sunday night at Mantorp and are now back to our base in Linköping to reorganise everything for next race. The top fuel transporters head towards Gardermoen Raceway in Norway on tuesday night, with the crew following a day later.


PERSONAL NEWS FOR ALL CAT LOVERS..

We are proud to announce that two kittens were born into the Kågered family on "Mantorp Park race day" july 30th. The red male kitten goes by the name of NITRO, while the female white/black kitten is to be called METTIS (short for methanol in swedish). The adorable kittens both will be given what we hope new, caring homes by october, but meanwhile we all enjoy having them around!

PS- they did get two good homes with loving families and are much appreciated in their new surrounding..


MICKE´s WELL KEPT SECRET NOW PUBLIC.. "BRINGS TWO RACE CARS TO MANTORP"..


Micke to pilot the methanol funny car at Mantorp!

July 14th 2006:  We can now confirm that Micke Kågered plans to "double" at Mantorp by entering both the top fuel dragster and methanol funny car categories! Read his thoughts and comments on the issue below;

"We have had the funny car loaded in its trailer since more than a month. Initially it was prepared to be delivered in mid-june to a "new home" 
, but the deal with a potential buyer have taken longer than expected to sort out.. so the car is still mine and one day I walked past the funny car trailer and the thought struck me that I could actually run it if I wanted.. It would not be to much of a job too begin with as it is pretty much set up to race anyway.. So I called around and asked my mechanics how they would feel if we brought two cars to Mantorp..

As a result, I have entered the event at Mantop Park in both methanol funny car and top fuel dragster. Top fuel is my main priority this season and for the time being I have no intentions of making more appearances with the funny car than at Mantorp. 


Micke looks forward to pilot his funny car again..  

It has been three years since I last piloted a methanol funny car and I actually feel rather excited about it.. maybe to some extent also because it was not planned that I would still have the car in my possession. So it has not really been on my mind before to make an appearance in funny car again, but now that I have made up my mind I feel good about it! Plans are we race both cars at Mantorp, take one run at a time and make decisions as we go depending on how it turns out.."

If interested, take a look at the complete entry list to the FIA European Championship event at Mantorp Park- it looks like it is going to be a big battle for the 8 spaces in the elimination ladder in both top fuel dragster and methanol funny car and team Kågered will be highly involved in both battles!
 


July 5th 2006: We are back home and the top fuel dragster stays parked inside the trailer for the time being. On the mechanics side it is mainly some maintenance and updates that are on the agenda before the race at Micke´s home track Mantorp Park. On the adiminstrative and logistics side we have the busiest three weeks of the year ahead of us mainly involving Åsa, Kenta, Lill and Micke (plus some 20 extra staff during the event). Many of our sponsors invite guests to the track and we expect to host hospitality for ca 700 guests over the weekend. It takes a lot of administration and planning the coming two weeks, the last week is mainly devoted to "hands on" tasks out at Mantorp Park, organising our private VIP-area and sorting the last details out with the organisers. The track itself at Mantorp Park has proved to be in great condition the last two years and we  expect to see top performance in the Pro classes. In top fuel dragster, 11 teams have entered which means we know already now there are more cars than spots in the 8 car elimination ladder. 




Team Kågered "constellation Alastaro"- click to enlarge!

July 2nd 2006: The FIA European Championship event at Alastaro Raceway, FINLAND have been completed and the results have been posted together with our comments. Micke was taken out in the quarter finals, loosing to Thomas Nathås after having lost some traction. The winner of the event in Top fuel dragster was also Thomas Nathås and runner-up Håkan Nilsson. The next FIA European Championship event is the last weekend in july at Mantorp Park, Sweden.  


 

Hallmare Havsbad- The Kågered family campsite-pretty by the sea..

ALREADY MIDSUMMER?
June 21st 2006: In Sweden this coming weekend is special and connected to a lot of traditions- special food and drinks, special rituals like dancing around the midsummer´s pole (mainly for the children).. This friday is midummer´s eve and saturday is midsummer´s day. Many people also take these days off from work. Micke  Kågered plans to spend friday and saturday on a mini break together with family and friends at the Kågered family campsite, called Hallmare Havsbad. It is mainly run by his brother´s family and Micke´s parents. Micke himself together with partner Åsa are more like sleeping partners, who help out at times in between all racing related activities... Micke comments; "Our campsite is real pretty as it is situated in a beautiful setting by the sea where we have our own sandy beach". He continues; "I would love to spend more time there, both working and relaxing, but as we are in for a hectic summer in dragracing as well, that is where my main focus needs to be as long as I operate on this level.. However I will enjoy two days with my family and friends and of course the hundreds of camping guests we expect over the weekend." 

WE WISH ALL OF YOU A NICE MIDSUMMER WEEKEND!     

June 18th 2006: Yesterday Micke, Kenta and Lill were in Emmaboda with the funny car and participated in the official opening of Emmaboda Dragway. Well visited event, we had the funny car on display incl startup. Our sponsor BILSPORT is highly engaged in the Emmaboda dragway project and the track will host acitivities like "a day on the strip", were the public can bring their own cars or bikes and drive the quartermile track on time.
Today, sunday-parts of our Linköping based crew is in Eskilstuna to work on the dragster. A heavy work load still remains before all is set for Finland, but at least we have recieved most parts needed back from  machine work and our US-based suppliers. 
 

June 15th 2006: Micke together with truck driver Kenta has spent two days in Stockholm with our sponsor Mitutoyo, which have had an open house activity for their clients. As the dragster is still being repaired, Micke brought along the funny car and top fuel chopper. The funny cars was started and warmed up a couple of times during thursday, not only for show, but in order to prepare for the activity in Emmaboda on saturday together with our sponsor BILSPORT.


June 14th 2006: We have updated and given our beloved Chopper its own page on our website



Kjell and Micke spend time on the funny car for a change..
 
June 6th 2006: Sweden´s national day today and a public holiday. Micke together with mechanic Kjell spend part of their day preparing the methanol funny car. We are taking it to the activities we are booked for next week as the dragster is currently being worked on. As Micke and Kjell work on the funny car today, the dragster is being cared for at our work shop in Eskilstuna by mechanics Mika, Thomas, Robert and Emil. "I don´t want to rush the work on the dragster as it is crucial we make a thourough job on it", says Micke. "The funny car is one of the quickest in Europe of its kind and although we have decided not to operate it ourselves this year, I still like it a lot", he comments.. "after all I have had a fair share of success with that car and is currently working on a good solution for its future..", Micke concludes.      


STATUS REPORT

Micke is fine after the fire..
June 5th: We have recieved many emails which concern Micke´s health condition after the fire he experienced  during the quarter finals at Santa Pod. We all  appreciate the concern and is happy to tell you he is just fine now.. Thanks to the professional fire crew and medical staff at Santa Pod, he was cared for in the best possible way when it happened, which together with his safety equipment helped secure him from major injuiries.


It started well..Micke´s car (to the left) went straight and smooth, no problems with tire shakes at all.. Photo by Jon GWilliam used by permission

The rear part of the dragster was pretty damaged incl. most wiring, instruments, panels and also Micke´s seat. The driver´s suit and helmet were burnt as they took the impact from the fire in the way they are designed to. In Micke´s case he was wearing a suit designed for funny car racing, which is of even higher safety standard than requested. He was of course happy he did.. You may wonder about the reason for the fire. What we can tell from looking at the engine it was an intake valve that broke, which lead to a number of other failures.


.. three seconds later, the rear part of the car including the cockpit is covered by flames. Photo by Jon GWilliam used by permission

To the spectators at Santa Pod we would like to say we are very sorry we could not repair the car and make the semi final run. We had all spare parts needed, but the car itself was just too badly burnt. We had a good setup going and would have given anything to try it out fully during the continued eliminations.

The people who have been following our team through the years know we never give up or quit if we have the slightest chance of making it to the next round. In this case our mechanics worked really hard after the run, but had to realise it was just too much that could not be replaced in the remaining time before next run. We are not talking about changing an engine (which we did), but to replace all wiring etc. was just not possible in time.

We appreciate the support we feel from many of you. It is encouraging and we can assure you we will be back to continue the work we started in Finland three weeks from now! 




Micke´s engine in flames during qualifications. Photo by Gromit and used by permission.
 
May 29th 2006: Elimination day at Santa Pod and what a day and weekend for team Kågered.. After having qualified number 7 damaging two different engines, Micke was up against second quickest Håkan Nilsson in the quarter finals. It seemed good to start with, but at 300 meters Micke´s third engine were on fire and it spread towards the cockpit. Micke did get out of the car by himself, even before the car had stopped, parts of the car was pretty badly damaged. Micke won the run with a 5.44 sec. run, but after having tried to replace and repair for an hour we had to accept there was no chance to make it in time for the semi finals- there were just too many pieces burnt on the car. So the event ended there for team Kågered unfortunately and Micke had to leave walk over in the semi finals to Håkan Fällström, who later won the event in a good, close final against Smax Smith from the UK (now residing in Canada).   

We have posted top fuel dragster results and our comments on the results 2006 page.
 


SYSTEM EDSTRÖM- A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING..


May 20th 2006: Team Kågered is happy to include SYSTEM EDSTRÖM BILINREDNINGAR among our sponsors. System Edström Bilinredningar AB develop and manufacture furnishing systems for all kinds of service vehicles. Smart solutions and their USP - A Place for everything pretty muchs says it all. System Edström´s head office is situated in Stockholm. Team Kågered and System Edström will be cooperating in selected aspects of market communication, hospitality activities and exhibitions.



OUR RECENT VISIT AT 3M

Click on photo to enlarge!
We recently visitied our sponsor 3M at the head office in Stockholm. Real pretty day, the trees blooming and we could not resist to show you this photo..



"WE ARE READY".. REFLECTIONS ON THE COMING RACE SEASON..

Photo by Remco Scheelings

May 11th 2006: We are very happy that we started the race season already at Easter.. 

The fact we managed to win the event was a bonus, but as none of the teams really lived up to their normal standard of performance (incl. ourselves) we don´t consider the win itself most valuable. What we value higher is the fact we managed to cure the initial  problems we had with tire shakes, bit by bit for every run. We have a pretty clear idea on how we are going to continue develop what we started.

To people who are not involved in a nitro team it may sound like greek.. and it is if you don´t understand greek. The people who tune these cars- in our case Alan Jackson and Göran Edman, have to work actively with the setup of the car at all times. They can not just leave the car be with one combination or setup.  

It is very difficult to tune a top fuel dragster so it will perform consistent run by run, with changing track- and weather conditions. There are so many components on a top fuel dragster, so many things that can fail and it is just too easy to loose a run- it happens all the time to all of us and for the most different reasons.

That is why we appreciate tremendously when we manage to perform well through a whole event and we also know to appreciate it when any of the other teams manage just that.

All in all, we have prepared well for the FIA European championship start at Santa Pod in two weeks.
We will not be testing further before the first qualification run on May the 27th.. we feel ready and look forward to the challenge!

Hope to see you at Santa Pod!

Best Regards, Åsa Kinnemar



TEAM KÅGERED TO COOPERATE WITH GATORZ..


May 2006: To many people in the motorsport and bike trade, the Gatorz brand is well-known and what first comes to mind is the state of the art aluminium frames that defines Gatorz. Gatorz strong racing and bike appeal fits like a glove in the Kågered team profile. Gatorz are currently expanding in Europe and Micke Kågered (who is the long time owner of several pairs of Gatorz sunglasses), welcomes the opportunity to be apart of the action. For more information, please visit www.gatorzeurope.com Gators Europe Ltd. is currently looking for new dealers in several countries in Europe and welcome serious inquiries. 
     
The Gatorz Wraptor model with polished aluminium frames



MICKE´s RECENT VISIT AT ALDE´s PLANT

  
Micke got a guided tour by ALDE´s professional staff..

May 8th 2006: Micke and truck driver Kenta welcomed the opportunity to end the road show in the south of Sweden (may 2-4th) by paying a visit at our sponsor ALDE´s plant in Färlöv on may 5th. ALDE is a major producer of heating systems to mobile homes, caravans, boats etc. Micke, who is curious by nature took a look at the assembly line for heating systems. Team Kågered naturally use ALDE´s heating systems in both our double deck trailers.


Micke together with ALDE´s Bertil Nilsson, who is in charge of the after-market dept.


TEAM KÅGERED CREW BACK FROM THE US..


Crew chief Göran "Emil" Edman

May 5th 2006: Three of our crew members just recently returned from a week long trip to the US, where they attended the NHRA event in Bristol, TN. It was our "diver" Mika, together with engine mechanic Thomas and crew chief Göran "Emil" Edman who took the opportunity to attend the NHRA meeting, just in time before the FIA season starts here in Europe and keeps us busy. Göran Edman comments the recent trip; "we  had a real good stay in the US and the three days we spent at Bristol Dragway in particular". He continues; "when we race ourselves, we rarely have time to take a step back. We are constantly striving to improve and we think it is good to once in a while take a look at how the top fuel teams work in the US." Edman does not wish to tell if there is something in particular he was interested in, but says "the US race season is much longer than what we have in Europe, which basically means the US teams get greater experience in a shorter period of time than us". He concludes; "there is always something to pick up from an NHRA event, beside the great experience it is to see some real good drag racing live from the grandstands for once"..

The first FIA European championship event comes up in three weeks time when all top teams travel to the UK and Santa Pod Raceway. We will of course make sure to keep you updated! 
 

MICKE WON SEASON OPENING EVENT AT SANTA POD..


The event marshall Darren Prentice presented Micke with the trophy for his win at Sant Pod

April 17th 2006;  After three qualification runs Micke Kågered were 2nd quickest in the field after funny car driver John Spuffard. The two were in the finals, a final Micke won running a 5.18 sec. run. It was his quickest run this weekend, also the quickest in the pro fuel shootout field. "We came here mainly to test", Micke commented and continued. "It started out pretty bad and we had problems with tires shakes as most of the other teams had too, so it feels good it all turnout in a better way than we expected after having started the qualifications so modest", Micke concludes. Six weeks to go until team Kågered returns to Santa Pod for the FIA European Championship.


Micke, Thomas, Edvin and Kenta while taking the engine apart sunday


We have posted results and comments. Today as well a real good crowd here to watch the racing! 

 
Bringing back the dragster to the pits after a run

Continous online reports from the event at eurodragster.com


Micke and Thomas Nathås at Santa Pod in 2005..




April 9nd 2006: BILSALONGEN CLOSED SUNDAY..
The Bilsalongen autoshow is over after having been open to the public for nine days. Up until sunday ca 143.000 visitors came to see the show.
Above a glimpse of team Kågereds stand before opening hours. We performed this exhibition together with our business partners Bahco and 3M.
 




March 29th 2006: NEW BUSINESSPARTNER



Team Kågered will work together with ALBERT BERNER MONTAGETEKNIK AB in Sweden when it comes to selected activities and market communication

The Berner Combination is one of the leading European organisations offering an all-round service in the small parts business (consumables and tools) to the professional user in trade and industry.

In the building industry in particular Berner supplies carpenters and joiners, electricians and  plumbers as well as builders and heating and air-conditioning firms. In the automotive branch, Berner customers above all are authorised garages and specialist repair shops for cars, commercial vehicles, building and agricultural machinery and road haulage companies.

TEAM KÅGERED welcomes BERNER as our official business partner and look forward to the cooperation!

March 22nd 2006: We had the Top fuel chopper on display at a local event at the Harley-Davidson dealer BEVIKS in Micke´s home town Linköping yesterday. He also lectured about his operation and drag racing in general. Micke reports he was pleased with the activity and that he also got the question to bring the dragster and transporters along for another activity in april.  


SNEAK PEAK AT THE NEW SCANIA TRUCK..

THE NEW SCANIA TRUCK ALONE..
March 20th 2006: The work with new truck from SCANIA HYR is progressing well. Involved in this project beside SCANIA HYR is TRUX (misc. safety equipment), BILLACKERINGEN MJÖLBY (exterior decorating) and TRUCK-LITE (lighting). The transporters can be seen at the Bilsalongen fair april 1st-9th in Stockholm and its first long journey will be to England shortly after that.


..AND IN FRONT OF OUR "TOP FUEL" TRAILER


Team Kågered crew member Kent "Gotland" Karlsson is the lucky driver of the new SCANIA all season and so far he is thrilled about both the looks and performance of it!


MICKE BACK FROM BAHRAIN..

March 15th 2006:  Micke Kågered did have a good trip to Bahrain. The parts he was personally invloved with went well. Micke and Thomas Nathås performed burnouts and launches in connection with the season opening F-1 race. Today both race cars and all equipment are being loaded into containers for shipment out of Bahrain. Micke comments that the circuit and facilities around it is just amazing and that he appreciates the interest in drag racing that the Bahrainian organisers and spectators have shown a great deal. 

He got back tuesday night to Sweden and now has a hectic schedule the coming two weeks. As we have a major exhibition here in Sweden just before the first race of the season, we need to have everything ready by the end of next week, says Micke.   



TEAM KÅGERED AT THE MOTORSPORTGAMES

Preparations being made at the Globe arena

February 20th 2006:  The past weekend part of our crew made appearances at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the first time the Motorsportgames was arranged and the organisers wanted the crowd to get the feeling of a top fuel dragster. Even if it is was not possible to run it inside the arena, the dragster was fired up twice during the weekend for show. Micke Kågered was assisted this weekend by crew members Emil, Thomas, Mika, Kenta, Lill, Edvin, Max and Kjell.


Emil oversees the fire up

Micke´s comment is that it was a fun and original idea to show the audience all kinds of motorsports at an indoor area. All went well for team Kågered and "Hopefully, says Micke, some may want to see the real thing live this summer by visiting the events at Mantorp Park or Tullinge".   



OUR NEWEST BUSINESS PARTNER IS..



.. AMALIE Motor Oil. It can now be announced that   team Kågered and AMALIE Motor Oil sign a contract for cooperation starting in 2006 when it comes marketing and marketing activities.

US based AMALIE Motor Oil, with headquarter in Tampa, Florida is represented by Swelube for distribution in Scandinavia. AMALIE was founded already in 1903 in the US and was one of the original Pennsylvania Crude oil companies. AMALIE was also the first oil company to introduce a multi-grade motor oil: the Imperial 10W30

Team Kågered will be supported as well from AMALIE´s US head office as the Scandinavian distributor Swelube. Our first thoughts are that it is both interesting and challenging to become invloved in marketing the AMALIE brand in Scandinavia and at the same time we appreciate the confidence and support we recieve from AMALIE´s US head quarter, where the brand is established since many years back.
 
For information on AMALIE´s products, please check the central website www.amalie.com For information on distribution in Scandinavia please email info@swelube.se
 


MICKE KÅGERED ALL TIME #NO. 1 FIA DRIVER!



january 2006: Micke Kågered is the "champion of the champions" when it comes the FIA driver to earn the most points since the FIA Championships started. After the season 2005 was completed, Micke was still in the lead, followed by Pro Stock driver Michael Malmgren and in third place Top methanol Funny car pilot Leif Andréasson.




January 20th 2006: Trux AB manufactures front protection bars, roof mounted light bars and other safety accessories, customized for all different Truck brands made in Europe. Team Kågered will be working with Trux when it comes to safety equipment for the new Scania truck we are going to operate this season. Trux in cooperation with Scania Hyr and Truck-lite are in the process of equipping the brand new truck in Stockholm and it will be decorated by Billackeringen in Mjölby to fit our team profile. First trip with the new Scania is planned to be England at Easter.


YES, THERE IS SOME ACTION GOING ON..


Rare sight.. mechanics waiting for action
from the left: Kent, Edvin, Thomas, Keijo and Kjell

January 19th 2006: The pre race season is a more hectic period than one may imagine. Outside our office windows it is snowing and the temperature is well below zero and it does not appear to be season for dragracing. Well in a way it is..

What we are doing now is for instance to plan and book road show activities together with our sponsors for mainly the spring period. This is also an intense period when it comes to sponsors and most deals should be completely set by the end of january. We are fortunate enough to be able to keep many sponsors from one year to another and we are also including some new and very interesting companies this season.

The "hands on" job in our two work shops in Linköping (which is Micke´s base) and Eskilstuna is proceeding well. While we wait to get the dragster back from chassis builder Mats Eriksson, we spend time on maintaining and updating the engines. One thing is sure- the teams that are out to win the top fuel championship this season need to have their pieces in order at all times. We plan to be one of those teams.    
 



January 10th2006: Team Kågered and KAMA Fritid in cooperation 2006!
KAMA Fritid is a leading wholesale supplier in the Nordic region when it comes to
accessories for motorhomes and caravans. KAMA Fritid´s head office is based in Sweden with branch offices located in both Finland and Norway. KAMA Fritid work with leading suppliers within the fields caravan, motorhome, camping and leisure.

Micke Kågered comments; ”KAMA Fritid is a right on company for us to work with, not least because our double deck trailers are in many ways similar to motorhomes and we can actually use the same solutions that are manufactured for motorhomes and caravans.” He continues; ”we are planning some activities together this year and we will also implement products from KAMA´s vast range of products (8.000 articles!) into our motorhome trailers. I am looking forward to it!” 
To find out more about KAMA Fritid, please visit www.kamafritid.se





January 9th 2006: Truck-Lite Inc, which is one of the world leading manufacturer of lighting, mirrors etc. for the transport industry and team Kågered has agreed on an increased level of cooperation for the season 2006. Cooperation will include selected activities among other things.
       



January 4th 2006: Kaeser Kompressoren is one of the largest and most successful suppliers of air systems. Products incl. a wide range of compressors, air systems and more. We are happy to include Kaeser Kompressorer in Sweden among the fine companies we will be working with in 2006.
 







December 28th2005: Team Kågered are pleased to present one of the new companies we will cooperate with in 2006- US based Weld Racing Wheels and Accessories. Weld Racing Wheels is a world leader in forged wheel technology since 33 years. Weld Racing Pro-Motorsport wheels are certified by the NHRA for use in the professional fuel classes including top fuel dragster. Weld is also a manufacturer of motorcycle wheels as well as wheels for most cars incl. SUVs. For more information please visit weldracing.com. Micke Kågered comments; "Weld Racing Wheels is definately a company that fit the profile we like to work with and also well among our other sponsor companies. I am pleased and look forward to the cooperation."
  



December 6th 2005: The BILSPORT Junior magazine is 
published in Sweden and its readers are youngsters from 5 and older. In its latest issue, the magazine aim to provide its readers with some information of what a top fuel dragster is all about.. BILSPORT Junior have chosen Mickes dragster to illustrate what is what on a dragster and how it works. Please, click on the picture below if you are interested to learn more (in swedish only-sorry..)




 

Photo: Representatives from Nilfisk ALTO, CRC and Bahco working at the Kagered stand at Bilsportmässan

November 27th 2005: Svenska Bilsportmässan closed sunday evening after three successful days. In excess of 25.000 visitors came to the exhibition and team Kågered together with our sponsors Bahco, CRC, Nilfisk ALTO, Milwaukee Electric Tools and I-CM are very satisfied with the show.


Photo: Mechanics show at the Kågered stand

Activities included Team Kågered mechanics show that was performed twice daily. The task to change all 8 pistons on time on the top fuel engine took 10 minutes 43 seconds as quickest.



November 23rd 2005: Mikael Kågered today was guest lecturer at a seminar  in Karlskrona on the topic "Motorsport and alcohol".



 MICKE KÅGERED RACING SAYS THANK YOU..



November 15th 2005:  As a token of our appreciation we have placed an ad in the latest issue of BILSPORT magazine where we thank our sponsors 2005. BILSPORT magazine is issued in 63.100 copies every 2nd week and reach an estimated 282.000 readers. Micke Kågered Racing is proud to cooperate with 46 Scandinavian, UK and US-based companies for the year 2005.



EDMAN BACK FROM TRIP TO BAHRAIN


Team Kågered crew cheif Göran Edman

November 14th2005: Team Kågered´s long time funny car crew chief Göran "Emil" Edman attended the invitational event in Bahrain november 10-11th.

Over the phone during the event we got a brief report from Edman about the situation and status of the evnt in Bahrain. He told us that everything is very well organised and that the standard of the track facilities is absolute top quality. However, the track preparation so far (with one day of qualifying completed) not living up to expectations. Callin´s best performance on track during the event was in the 6.5´s.

Background: Micke Kågered was initially invited in top fuel together with Norwegian Thomas Nathås to drive in Bahrain, but different engagements already planned for Micke meant he decided to turn down the offer. Instead Susanne Callin was chosen to represent top fuel in a Knut Söderqvist-owned dragster.

Edman was in Bahrain to help out with the tuning on Susanne´s car and was asked to do so by car owner Söderqvist. Edman´s main reason for accepting was that Bahrain is a potential candidate for an FIA Championship event already in 2006. He figured it would be good to get acquainted with the track and how everything works, and that he hopefully could learn something that can be of use to if we are to race in Bahrain the season 2006".

The last two seasons Emil, as we call him, has been working together with Alan Jackson on Micke Kågered´s dragster, parallelly to tuning the methanol funny car piloted by Niclas Andersson. By operating only in top fuel, Micke Kågered´s hopes are that Emil will have time to be more involved in the tuning. "Emil is a key player, who has contributed a lot to my success in methanol funny car and I am sure he will be as valuable for us in top fuel next season", Kågered comments.  
 


KÅGERED DRAGSTER IN VW AD CAMPAIGN..

 

November 8th 2005: Does the vehicle to the left in the above photo seem familiar? At least to us it does.. Micke Kågered´s top fuel dragster is used in an ad campaign by Volkswagen Sweden, where the new VW Caddy is compared to a race car as it has a unique racing transmission. The ads have been placed in major evening press newspapers frequently during the last month.
 


Micke with some of the youngest visitors

October 25th: The last road show activity for this year has been completed for us. Micke Kågered and part of the crew were present when Woody Bygghandel in Åtvidaberg, Sweden celebrated the Octoberfest. Mickes top fuel dragster & chopper were on display. The weather at present rapidly approaching the freezing point and today we have stored our transporters away from the rain and the soon to be exptected snow. 


Micke took the opportunity of getting the chopper cleaned by a pro- here Nilfisk-ALTO´s representative with an army of equipment on display!



Niclas moves on..

Kågered & Andersson- team mates for three years

October 17th: It is now confirmed that Niclas Andersson moves on to drive in the Pro Modified category the season 2006. Andersson, who has been piloting team Kågered´s methanol funny car the seasons 2003-2005 is to drive for team "Old Fifty" based in Malmö, Sweden. The team operates a Chevy ´51 with a so far best ET of 6.46 seconds. When Micke Kågered set the funny car up for sale after the race season 2005 had come to an end, it was naturally agreed that Niclas was free to look elsewhere. Although there are some options at hand, the destiny of the Sandflex funny car is pending at this time.



October 11th: The BILSPORT magazine is published in Sweden with 63.000 printed copies and issued 26 times every year. BILSPORT is a "must read" magazine for everyone who wants to stay updated with the latest in motorsports and it covers events, not only in Scandinavia, but in Europe (and occasionally a wider area than that). Micke Kågered is one of the magazines associated drivers, representing drag racing.



One of Mickes tasks as a BILSPORT TOP FIVE- driver is to write a column four times a year, sharing his thoughts with the readers. In the BILSPORT21-issue, dated october 6th, Micke makes a summary of the race season 2005. If you are interested to read Micke´s column, please click HERE for the swedish original version or a translation in english.



October 3rd: The invitational activity together with Scania Hyr! october 1st in Södertälje oustide Stockholm went well. Invited clients could both test drive chosen vehicles from Scanias vast range of transporters and also have a look at the top fuel dragster. The calendar for Micke Kågered is filled with meetings the coming month and he will be travelling a lot within Sweden.




Archive photo from a road show appearance together with BAHCO in Trollhättan sept 21st

September 29th: A period of "road showing" together with Bahco has been completed for this time.

October-november is a period when the strategy for next race season is being drawn up. We have some interesting alternatives on hand and will make evaluations together with ours sponsors before deciding finally on details. Maintenance on transporters and race cars is ongoing throughout all winter.




Photo by Option Press-Vagelis Aspromougos

FIA European Finals, Santa Pod ENGLAND Sept 9-11th: The eliminations were completed at 9 pm, running late due to rain. Micke Kågered were in the finals against Tommy Möller, but lost. Niclas were taken out in the semifinals, loosing to Leanders, who later took the event win.

New FIA champions 2005 in top fuel dragster is Lex Joon and in methanol funny car Urs Erbacher, last years champion took another title! 

The event results have been posted. The final FIA points standings 2005 can be seen here (document in pdf-format). In top fuel dragster Micke Kågered went from fifth to third place during the last event, while Niclas Andersson in the methanol funny car stayed in a fifth overall position.




Kent Karlsson (left) team Kågered discussing with Patrik Strandberg from Bahco

August 28th; THE TRAILER TRUCKING FESTIVAL
 including the Nordic Trophy Challenge for trucks has come to an end for this time. It was arranged august 25-27th. Micke Kågered and part of the crew spent three busy days in Karlskrona to take part in Trailer magazines trucking festival together with BAHCO. In excess of 20.000 people visited the  fairgrounds in Karlskrona harbour during the three days the show lasted.


Micke Kågered brought the top fuel chopper to Karlskrona along with the top fuel dragster.

The chopper was awarded with first prize in the category "best chopper" in the motorcycle exhibition arranged by Allt om MC magazine, which have an estimated 140.000 readers!

A feature article about Micke and his "one of a kind" chopper can also be found in the Allt om MC magazine #10-11 issued on october 10th!


Micke after the win together with crew members
(from left)- Edvin, Kent & Aila.


TOP FUEL CHALLENGE, TULLINGE SWEDEN
august 13-14th

View over the Tullinge track seen from behind Mickes dragster. To the left Alan Jackson and to the right Thomas Ankarås.

August 14th; The all Swedish top fuel challenge has been completed at Tullinge. We were only given one chance to qualify as the second session was cancelled due to rain. Based on that in the 4-car elimination ladder Micke Kågered met Tommy Möller in the semifinals, a run Micke won and his opponent in the final was to be Monica Öberg.A shaky ride for Micke in the final, his efforts to try and pedal the car down the track did not do against Monica who had a smoother ride and won the race. In the run for 3-4th place Möller performed this weekend´s quickest time with 5.03 seconds, while Persåker´s blower belt came off and put an end to his chance of winning the run.
 
Results  have been posted.




Micke and Thomas prepare spare heads for the top fueler.

FIA round #4 Gardermoen Raceway in Norway august 5-7th: Sunday´s eliminations at Gardermoen has been cancelled. Racing was just about to start, when rain (once again) came into the area and continued throughout the afternoon. The qualification results have been posted. Regretably we have to note that weather for the second weekend in a row prevented an event from being finished.

Parts of our crew stayed in Norway an extra day to participate in an activity in cooperation with Bahco.




August 2nd: MICKE KÅGERED´s 75th FIA win..
We have just been informed by Andy Rogers of the no#1 news forum Eurodragster that Micke´s win over Monica Öberg at Mantorp was in fact his 75th win in FIA competition! The crews congrats to Micke- would it be too much to wish for another 75??

Thank You to Andy Marrs who keeps complete control of the FIA statistics (we did not have a clue..)




"Micke had it going".. photo shown is from Santa Pod shot by Remco Scheelings

August 1st: FIA event at MANTORP PARK not completed due to weather delay..

Micke Kågered and Niclas Andersson had an initially good race weekend at Mantorp. Micke Kågered qualified second quickest in the top fuel field, where 9 cars were competing for 8 spots in the elimination ladder. Micke up against Monica Öberg in the quarter finals and took a clear win. Niclas Andersson in the methanol funny car did not run among the quickest during qualifications. With 12 cars present, Niclas was only number seven after qualifications which put him up against the current methanol funny car champion Urs Erbacher from Switzerland. For the eliminations however, Niclas crew had worked out what proved to be the perfect setup for Niclas. Niclas also got to show the crowd his skills as a driver, when he outran Urs Erbacher in the quarter finals. Niclas elasped time of 5.84 seconds was the quickest during the weekend in methanol funny car.

Due to a five hour weather delay on sunday, the organisers were not able to finish the eliminations within the time limit that was set to 6 p.m. The semifinals and finals were therefore cancelled. A real pity for the spectators and team Kågered who really had it going with both cars.

Our entire crew would like to thank all our guests for visiting and we hope that (despite the abrupt end of the event) you had a good stay with us at Mantorp Park. Shown below are some of our staff on duty at Mantorp!

Photo shot sunday evening by team Kågered´s Åsa Kinnemar.




Report from the Kamasa Mechanics Challenge, july 23rd Kungsträdgården Stockholm;
Team Kågered was not able to defend last year´s title as the quickest funny car crew in Europe this time. Seven teams were in competition, changing one piston on time (starting the engine both before and after). Team Kågered mechanics made their way through the quarter, and semifinals to face Team Andréasson in the final. A stunning final by both teams where Andréasson´s crew were in excess of a minute quicker. Times around 6-7 minutes to change a piston.. how about that??


Micke Kågered interviewed by speaker Björn Sundkvist.

 Crowded around the race car.. 6 of our mechanics (assisted by drivers Micke Kågered and Niclas Andersson) participated in the mechanics challenge.




Many were interested to take a close look at the top fuel dragster in Nyköping..



.. where Micke also displayed the new team chopper

Team coordinator Åsa Kinnemar (left) with collegue Aila Striem who manage the souvenirs dept.

July 14th: Yesterday Team Kågered participated in SHRA Nyköping´s 30-years celebration at the harbour area of Nyköping, Sweden. Many interested visitors had come to see Micke Kågered´s top fueler together with other spectacular race cars and also Charley Karlings drag bike. A fun evening in the beautiful setting of the Nyköping harbour!


Team Kågered mechanic Kjell Österskog had a busy time anwering questions about the dragster..

while mechanic Mika Laksela and Micke Kågered seeked the shade for a moment.




Two of team Kågered´s female members - Ronja and Aila at Alastaro saturday

July 3rd: The 2nd round of the FIA European drag racing championship has been completed at Alastaro Raceway in Finland and we have posted the complete results in top fuel dragster & top methanol funny car. Not a good weekend for team Kågered as both Micke Kågered and Niclas Andersson did not pass the quarter finals. Micke Kågered´s first comment was that a stroke a bad luck is just grinning us in the face at the moment. Kågered was shut off by the starter in the quarter finals and did not get the chance to run Tommy Möller. Damage to Andersson´s funny car during the qualifications was unrepairable at the track and he had to leave walkover in the quarter finals.  

Winner in top fuel dragster was Andy Carter from the UK and in methanol funny car reigning champion Urs Erbacher, switzerland took a narrow win in a close final against Dan Larsen from Denmark. The next championship round is in Sweden three weeks from now at Mantorp Park.  


 

June 23rd: The Bahco/team Kågered road show in Germany has been been completed after three weeks on tour. The following locations have been visited on our tour in Germany;
 

ARCHIVE  ROAD SHOW


June 12th: We would like to show you some more photos from the tour when it visited the Sinsheim Motor & Technik Museum and crew member Peter helped unload some canons that arrived on a trailer. Our crew sure get to see a lot!




June 7th: Yesterday the road show arrived at Lufthansas location at Frankfurt Airport and we have some "must show" photos in memory of that day. Two pieces of stunning machinery put together- a Lufthansa Boeing 747 and the Bahco Express top fuel dragster of team Kågereds!. A one in a lifetime chance for our crew (and the Lufthansa staff) to enjoy the two very special machines at the same time. Powerful or what??



June 5th: Micke Kågered´s top fuel dragster can be seen at several locations the nearest weeks in Germany (plus one stop in Austria!). Bahco Germany has brought the spectacular dragster, transporters and two experts from the team along for a road show. For instance, on june the 4th, the fine company of Hommel Hercules in Moerfelden-Walldorf was paid a visit. We are happy to present some photos from the tour:


Crew member Peter (who speaks german fluently) loads materials for the road show at the upper floor of the trailer.


Bahco display units have been fitted inside the trailer. Bahco´s Jürgen Giesen is coordinating the whole the road show.


Truck driver Kent has unloaded the dragster on site in Moerfelden-Walldorf.



REPORT FROM THE ELMIA WOOD FAIR


The Sunfab stand was well visited and the funny car got quite some attention!

June 12th: Our sponsor SUNFAB and photographer Sven-Olof Löthmyr has kindly provided us some photos from the recent fair Elmia Wood (Jönköping Sweden) where they had driver Niclas Andersson working and the funny car on display for two days at the Sunfab stand. In total 50.500 branch visitors from all over Scandinavia came to see the show.

Niclas Andersson and Sunfab´s representative at Elmia Wood




Niclas and Micke discussing before the first run

May 30th, Santa Pod Raceway England:
The race at Snata Pod is over and the winner  in top fuel dragster is Lex Joon. In methanol funny car, not surprisingly Urs Erbacher took the win, but with a very close runner-up named Dan Larsen from Denmark. Our congrats to the winning teams, we know you all have been working real hard for it and hope to give you a real good match in Finland four weeks from now!

Complete Results have been posted.


A snapped rod caused a hole in the block during saturdays qualification for Niclas.. Here Aaron and Edvin disassemble the broken engine..


while Peppe, Mika and Kjell prepare for an engine change (and we are ready to go again).




archive:Micke Kågered, Kenta and Kjell during "a day at the strip" in Emmaboda May 21st.




"Some of our crew ready to hit the road after the show; From the left; Micke, Edvin, Lill and Kenta at the front."

March 28th: When Bilsport Performance Show closed its doors monday evening, more than 70.000 vistors had been at the show during the four days it lasted. Team Kågered had a great weekend and enjoyed the interest many vistors showed both our top fuel dragster and our transporters including the Scania Hyr truck. Our newest project includes a chopper bike, which we will have on display a lot when it is finished. We brought it just to give visitors a preview and it got a lot of attention during the show too!


"Team Kågered project chopper on display for the first time."




Micke Kågered and Mika Laksela at automässan

January 22nd 2005: Team Kågered and Bahco are at the autoshow in Gothenburg. Svenska Mässan, where the exhibition is held was open for trade visitors wednesday-friday and public visitors saturday.
Team Kågered mechanics put on a show for the audience, changing pistons on time three times daily. Quickest time over the weekend was noted during the last show with 7 minutes 57 sec. Not bad!


Christer Abrahamsson (left) acted as speaker during the well-visited mechanics shows



TEAM KÅGERED PILOTS AWARDED! 

November 22nd 2004; Micke Kågered and Niclas Andersson  were both awarded for their international achievements the season 2004. The prize ceremony banquet was held in Stockholm by the Swedish Motorsport Association. Close to 800 guests payed their respect to the fine Swedish drivers from all motorsport categories who have done well during this season. Micke Kågered was also awarded for setting a new Swedish E.T. record at Mantorp Park in july. The record time was set to 4.97 seconds. He backed the record up with a stunning 4.82 second run.



BILSPORTMÄSSAN COMPLETED

Micke Kågered in the great looking Bahco stand

 November 22nd 2004: The motorsport show Bilsportmässan is over for this time. The show was held November 19-21st at Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö, Sweden. Team Kågered entered the show together with Bahco Tools. The top fuel dragster was on display and we met a lot of nice visitors over the three days the show lasted!


Team Kågered´s Kent Karlsson enjoyed talking with visitors about our top fuel dragster at the show!



BAHCO & TEAM KÅGERED MADE PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN LINKÖPING..

Pictured: Micke Kågered (left) together with Bahco´s Tony S:t Cyr

October 5th 2004; Micke Kågered & crew payed a visit to Linköping´s new hockey arena, the Cloetta Center when close to 8.000 hockey fans came to see Linköping meet Brynäs. Both race cars were on dislpay and selected Bahco customers was invited in addition. Bahco´s Tony S:t Cyr liked the somewhat unusual mixing of motorsport and hockey and welcomes the idea of repeating the concept in other Swedish cities as well. As Linköping is Micke Kågered´s home town, he naturally met many friends and really enjoyed his day.




THE EUROPEAN FINALS COMPLETED
 
 Micke Kågered (centre) at Santa Pod preparing the top fueler tbefore the event with mechanics Peter Gultheimer (left) and Göran Edman.

September 11th 2004: The 6th and last event in the FIA European Championship have been completed. Before the event it was still uncertain who would be the European champions. In top fuel dragster Micke Kågered was in the lead, with Tommy Möller, Andy Carter and Jöran Persåker still in the game.
After the quarter finals they were down to two as
Persåker lost to Lex Joon and Tommy Möller was teken out by Micke Kågered. So remained Kågered and Carter. The scenario being that Carter needs to win the event and set a low elapsed time of the event. He managed to do just that, which leaves Micke Kågered two points after and in a second overall position this season. Needless to say Micke was very disappointed as his team failed to win the semi final that was so badly needed. The failure the car experienced during the semifinal run has never occured before, which makes it even more frustrating.

In methanol funny car the battle was on between Urs Erbacher and Ulf Leanders and it was going to be down to the last run for the season before it was decided, as both of them went on to the finals. Erbacher having a slight advantage as he earned extra points for setting the low elapsed time of the event. Leanders took the win of the event, but the European champion title in methanol funny car goes to Urs Erbacher for the second year in a row. Niclas Andersson secured the third overall position as we had hoped for. Although we were not far behind , the task to keep up with Erbacher and Leanders was just too tough for this weekend. Our congratulations go to all new FIA European championship winners.

The results from the event have been posted together with our comments.

For high resoluted archive photos, free for use, please go to our photo bank



FINAL TOP 4 POINTS STANDINGS FIA European Championship 2004

TOP FUEL DRAGSTER:
1. Andy Carter (GB) 417 p.
2. Mikael Kågered (S) 415 p.
3. Tommy Möller (S) 356 p.
4. Jöran Persåker (S) 334 p.

TOP METHANOL FUNNY CAR:
1. Urs Erbacher (CH) 471 points
2. Ulf Leanders (S) 468 p.
3. Niclas Andersson (S) 342 p.
4. Leif Andréasson (S) 311 p.
 



Photo: Winner Tommy Möller center, Micke Kågered right and semi-finalist Lex Joon left.

The Nitro Olympics at Hockenheim Ring Germany august 20-22 2004. For more information on the event, check www.nitro-olympics.de. Eliminations have been completed sunday and results posted. Micke Kågered was runner-up of the event after having lost the final against  Tommy Möller. Niclas Andersson went out already in the quarter finals, suffering from traction problems as many other teams this weekend.

Micke Kågered entered the event with a 12 point lead in the FIA European Championship, closely followed by Jöran Persåker and Andy Carter.

After the event Micke is still in the lead, with Tommy Möller in the second position, Andy Carter is now third and Jöran Persåker fourth. There still is a theoretical chance for any four of them to become the FIA European Champion 2004 on september the 12th at Santa Pod Raceway, England.

Niclas ANdersson holds the number three position in the points standings after the event in Hockenheim, closely followed by Leif Andréasson.





August 8th 2004: The 4th round of the FIA European championship is august 6-8th Gardermoen Raceway, Norway have been completed.

Pictured from left is our clutch man Mika Laksela, crew chief Göran Edman, engine mechanic Peter Gultheimer and pilot Niclas Andersson in their preparations of the funny car.

Micke Kågered took the win in the top fuel dragster category by beating Jöran Persåker in the final. The two of them met in the final at Mantorp Park as well one week ago. Micke Kågered won that race as well, so it is two in a row for Micke .

Niclas Andersson took a chance in the semi finals against Erbacher but lost it. Andersson´s engine was broken in the quarter finals and he knew he could not run properly. He still wanted to be there at the startline in case something happened to Urs car or if Urs red-lighted.  It did not work out to Andersson´s favour and Erbacher was on to the final against Ulf Leanders. We have placed the results on the results page. You can also find some additional photos on our photo bank page.







KÅGERED WINNER AT MANTORP!
Micke Kågered won the top fuel dragster category when the 3rd round of the FIA European Championship was hosted by Mantorp Park, Sweden July 30th-August 1st 2004. For the first time this season the new car Micke is driving proved its potential and Micke Kågered was of course thrilled!

"We did not have high hopes when we went to the track sunday morning", says Micke. "We were slowest of all cars during the qualifications and had problems with tires shakes.. so when I was to meet Andy Carter, who had run 4.76 and was quickest, I did not honestly think I would win". Micke continues; "This was one of the nicest wins I have had in my entire career and I am  thankful to my team for the efforts they have made to get us where we are today".

Niclas Andersson run well during the qualifications in our methanol funny car and beat Jörgen Johnsson in the quarter finals. However, before the semi-finals we had to change engine and Ulf Leanders turned out  to be too quick for Niclas.

The FIA circus is moving on to Norway for the 4th round in the championship august 6-8th. Qualifications are scheduled friday-saturday and eliminations are on sunday. For more information on the event, please visit www.norskdragracing.com





"Some of them successfully took on the challenge.."

 TEAM KÅGERED wins the Kamasa Mechanics challenge ..
On july 24th 2004, the methanol funny car top teams displayed the race cars at Kungsträdgården in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. In the "Kamasa Tools Mecahnics Challenge", six skilled funny car crews from team Andréasson, Nagel, Helander, Leanders, Fagerström and Kågered competed against each other for both the glory and fine prizes.
The task was to fire up the funny car engine, after that to change one piston and put the engine together again and fire it up once more.

Team Kågered was second quickest in the quarter finals after team Andréasson. In the semifinal the heat was on as team Kågered was quickest with a  time of eight minutes and went on to face team Andréasson in the final.. The time 7 minutes and 50 seconds by team Kågered was enough to win, both glory and a prize cheque for the mechanics on duty.
Micke Kågered comments; "This was great fun and we are of course all excited. A big crowd followed the action and it has been a great challenge for our mechanics to prove they can perform their tasks so well under pressure. Now we are all going to have a nice dinner together tonight and tomorrow we contibue our preparations for the FIA event at Mantorp Park july 28-august 1st."
 
Team Kågered crew for this event consisted of team owner Micke Kågered, Kent Karlsson (logistics), and mechanics Thomas Ankarås, Mika Laksela, Peter Gultheimer, Kjell Österskog and Keijo Kumpumäki. 





FIA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND #2
ALASTARO, FINLAND July 2-4th 2004


Micke Kågered helping out as a mechanic on the methanol funny car before the semi final.

July 4th 2004: The 2nd round of the FIA European Championship round has been completed at the Alastaro track in Finland. Saturdays qualifications were cancelled due to rain. Sunday´s eliminations was interrupted by rain before the finals and delayed. For team Kågered it proved to be worth it as Niclas Andersson took the methanol funny car win for the team. It was an all Swedish final where Niclas beat Leif Andréasson, Niclas running 5.93 against Andréasson´s 5.97. Nice and close as a final should be! Before the finals the engine had to be changed on Niclas car and the win made all efforts wort while. Micke Kågered was taken out of competition earlier than we hopes for, when the setup of the car did not work good enough with the current track conditions. Overpowering and spining the tires Micke lost in the quarter finals. It was to be Andy Carter who walked away winning the event after having outtaken Norway´s Thomas Nathås , Sweden´s Tommy Möller and in the final also Jöran Persåker. Our congrats to team Carter. The results from the event have been posted and we apologise for the delay.



Micke Kågered (centre) together with new crew member, mechanic Edvin Rask (left), head of logistics Kent Karlsson (right) getting ready for action at Alastaro.






Micke Kågered at Santa Pod ..

May 22nd-23rd 2004: Micke Kågered together with parts of his crew came to England to test the new top fuel dragster for two days at Santa Pod Raceway, England.

Two days of testing, which included some struggle. Struggle that can be expected with a new car and new setup. The car itself is great, it looks great and the chassis works great. The setup clearly has potential and on the whole lot we achieved what we hoped for during the tests. The data from the last pass showed us what we wanted to see and we will take it from there. Seven crew members including Micke Kågered stay the week at Santa Pod, to make final preparations to the car and no doubt, we will be ready for competition when the qualifications starts on saturday May the 29th, be sure not to miss the action!


.. preparations in the pits..

"With a completely new car, we needed to make sure everything is worked properly on it", says Micke Kågered and continues "We did not run tests to go quick down the track, but to prevent any unnecessary problems next weekend when the first race for the season is on here at Santa Pod".


.. and on the track for the first time.



REPORT: April 9-12 2004 BILSPORT PERFORMANCE SHOW



at Elmia Fairgrounds in Jönköping Sweden.
This show was partly organised by our sponsor Bilsport magazine. One of team Kågered´s truck & trailers were on display at the show as well as the top fueler. More than 50.000 visitors were expected to the show and the organisers did not have to get disappointed. A good show for team Kågered which now focus fully on pre-race season preparations the coming weeks.



Nordbygg Fair completed..
March 22th 2004: The top fuel dragster was on display in one of the main entrances and ine excess of 59.000 visitors had a chance to see the car when entering/exiting the exhibition halls.


The activity Micke Kågered participated in for selected Milwaukee Tools customers during the show was reported to be appreciated.



Transporters to match race cars..
March 22th 2004: Our transporters have been given a new design this year, similar to the top fuel dragster Micke Kågered will be piloting in 2004.

March 21st 2004: Snickers Original was started in Sweden in 1975 and is currently one of the leading brands within workwear in Europe. At the moment, the company is represented under its own name in 14 countries in Europe and under the name ‘Skillers’ in the USA and Canada. The Snickers Workwear is sold through more than 5000 dealers. The parent company, Snickers Europe AB, and the sales company for the Swedish market are located in Stockholm, Sweden. Snickers aims to constantly create even better workwear for professional workers, both men and women. The Snickers central warehouse is located in the Netherlands, allowing rapid deliveries throughout Europe. Website: www.snickers.se

Team Kågered will initially be wearing high quality working trousers and shoes from Snickers.


February 19-22 2004 GÖTEBORGS MOTORSHOW
REPORT: The show gathered more than 45.000 visitors. The interest for the top fueler and products on display in team Kågered´s stand were well above expectations.

The new top fuel dragster were on display for the first time. Show performed together with Billackeringen Mjölby/Sikkens car refinishing. Products on display by team Kågered from Bahco Tools, CRC, Milwaukee Electric Tools, Peltor Communication, Speedglas and Quaker State.
 

February 2nd 2004: THE AUTOTEKNIKSHOW OVER FOR THIS TIME..
Team Kågered´s funny car was exposed in Bahco Tools stand at the Autoteknikshow in Jönköping, Sweden january 28-31. The trade show held every other year is for the Swedish automotive aftermarket. Twice daily team Kågered mechanics performed "pit crew challenge shows" where the engine was taken apart and put back together again on time.The best time noted thursday was 10 minutes and 5 seconds! The shows gathered crowds of 100-200 persons to the Bahco stand each time performed and fine Bahco hand tools were handed out to the best guesses on how long each show would take. We have placed more photos from the show in the gallery!

	Team manager Micke Kågered (right) together with "diver" mechanic Jonas Aldén (center) and funny car driver Niclas Andersson. The funny car body was placed on the stand´s roof.
	Mechanics on duty; Rear left- Peter Gultheimer, rear right-Thomas Ankarås, front left-Jonas Aldén and Niclas Andersson.

March 12th 2004: TEAM KÅGERED IN COOPERATION WITH MICKEY THOMPSON


Team Kågered just recently finalised a deal to run Mickey Thompson tires on the methanol funny car. "More and more teams use the Mickey Thompson tires in the US, so why shouldn´t we provided the chance?", Micke Kågered comments. "We know they will also have top fuel tires on the market soon and we will wait for feedback from the US teams on those as well". The Mickey Thompson tires are distributed in Sweden by Proimp.




TEAM KÅGERED IN COOPERATION WITH MEGUIAR´S

March 8th 2004: Meguiar’s is the top selling line of car wax products in America, the number one selling mold release wax to the fiberglass boat industry in Europe, North America, and Asia, and the leading supplier of paint correction polishes to European automakers. "We are pleased to include Meguiar´s to the fine group of companies we cooperate with as their company and products meets all criterias we are looking for", Micke Kågered comments. The focus in the Meguiar´s/team Kågered cooperation will initially mainly be on events. For more information on Meguiar´s, check www.meguiarseurope.com


February 13th 2004: Team Kågered  in cooperation with Truck-lite



Micke Kågered´s first choice when it came to lighting for the transporters (our two double deck trailers) was the US brand Truck-Lite. Micke Kågered comments; "We know the Truck-lite products are very reliable as well as well designed and we have used some of them in the past with good results". He continues; "I am very pleased to include Truck-lite among our partners this season and their products will make a difference for sure on our completely redesigned double deck trailers". If interested to find out more about Truck-lite lighting, please visit www.truck-lite.com



February 2nd 2004: THE AUTOTEKNIKSHOW OVER FOR THIS TIME..
Team Kågered´s funny car was exposed in Bahco Tools stand at the Autoteknikshow in Jönköping, Sweden january 28-31. The trade show held every other year is for the Swedish automotive aftermarket. Twice daily team Kågered mechanics performed "pit crew challenge shows" where the engine was taken apart and put back together again on time.The best time noted thursday was 10 minutes and 5 seconds! The shows gathered crowds of 100-200 persons to the Bahco stand each time performed and fine Bahco hand tools were handed out to the best guesses on how long each show would take. We have placed more photos from the show in the gallery!

	Team manager Micke Kågered (right) together with "diver" mechanic Jonas Aldén (center) and funny car driver Niclas Andersson. The funny car body was placed on the stand´s roof.
	Mechanics on duty; Rear left- Peter Gultheimer, rear right-Thomas Ankarås, front left-Jonas Aldén and Niclas Andersson.

2004 - New Year, New car for Micke ..

 
Left: Mats Eriksson in the making of the new chassis
Right: The new chassis alongside the 2003 version.
Photos used by permission from SvenskDragracing. 

January 5th 2004: Micke Kågered will be in the seat of a brand new top fuel dragster when the race season starts. The chassis was built by Mats Eriksson in Borlänge, Sweden. Although Mats has been a licensed chassis builder for many years, this is the first time he got to build a top fueler. Not to worry, Eriksson´s cooperation with major US chassis manufacturer Murph Mc Kinney is close and Micke Kågered is content with the looks of the just completed chassis. "I thought the dragster I piloted last season was great and this new one looks even better", says Micke. "A new car is always a new car. The engines and setup will be similar to the season 2003. We started getting everything together well during the last part of the season and we will continue to work on the setup. My crew stays pretty much intact and together with tuner Alan Jackson we will just continue to do our best and hope it pays off", Micke Kågered comments. The new chassis has been transported to team Kågered´s work shop in Eskilstuna where it will be completed with fuel system, wiring, engine, clutch etc. The car makes its first public appearance at the Gothenburg Motor Show in february.



Major maintenance work on the agenda
January 4th 2004: At the moment major work is being done on our transport vehicles. One trailer has been grinded and just waits to be painted in a completely new scheme. Team coordinator Åsa Kinnemar explains; "We recently acquired a second double deck trailer that will be designed in the same way as the other one. With two cars, 15 people and only one trailer in the team, we were incredibly in lack of space in every sense. At last we got to a point where we felt we had two choices.. either drop the methanol funny car or get another transporter. The first alternative did not feel as a good option, since Niclas just have gotten used to the car and we have high hopes for his continued career, so we decided to let the operation grow instead and so far it feels we made a wise choice", she concludes. Interested to see what a double deck trailer looks like? Click here.



2003 Broadcast information FIA Championship
December 12th 2003: TV-Shows have been produced from all events included in the FIA European drag racing championship 2003. On some TV-channels the shows have been sent already, but more is still to come! Included on the broadcasters list are as well national as global TV-stations. To learn what channels send the FIA drag racing series, please click here (file in pdf-format).For accurate information on broadcasting dates etc. please check the websites of each broadcaster.



Website facelift
November 28th 2003: Our website has been in for a major facelift. New webdesign by Marcus Sjödin. If you do find errors in links or else, we would appreciate if you would drop us an e-mail at errors@kagered-racing.com.



Race Season Plans 2004 Finalised

November 20th 2003: Another season with two cars in the team. That is the concept team Kågered has decided to stay with 2004.
The decisions mean Niclas Andersson will get another shot at the FIA championship title 2004 in top methanol funny car. The season 2003 was a learning year for Niclas, who came from the Pro Stock category with several championship titles and in an way had to start all over again. We saw Niclas grow with the task as the events passed and he made it to his first final in Hockenheim. Micke Kågered knows how difficult it is to pilot a funny car and is not surprised nor disappointed with the 5th place in the championship for Niclas 2003.
 
Micke Kågered himself will continue to pilot the same top fuel dragster as in 2003. He is very pleased with the car and it is currently being checked and updated in Sweden by chassis builder Mats Eriksson. "The car is one of the finest in Europe and we have seen its potential, so there is no use looking for a new car at this time", says Micke Kågered.

The paint scheme for the transporters and top fueler will be quite different from 2003, but can not be presented just yet. The first public appearance for either of the cars will be at the Autoteknik show in Jönköping january 28-31, which team Kågered participate in on behalf of Bahco Tools.



"After race season" 2003 reflections..

September 22nd 2003: The 2003 FIA European championship has been completed. Micke Kågered ended as runner up in the top fuel dragster category and narrowly lost the title in the very last final of the very last event. The top fuel category has been real spectacular this season and the fact that four drivers still had the chance to win the title when we entered the last event says it all. The top methanol funny car category (where we had Niclas Andersson behind the wheel) was completely dominated by one team this season - team Erbacher from Switzerland. Quickest in the class however was to be Ulf Leanders from Sweden, who run a new unofficial European record of 5.66 seconds!
Two weeks after the last FIA event of the season, Micke Kågered is quite content after all. He is not the champion, but it was close.  That is what it is all about.. you can take nothing for granted with these cars and sometimes the racing is so close the drivers can´t tell who crossed the finish line first in a race. Micke made a strong come back this season after his bad crash one year ago. That is what matters most to him as well as the rest of the team. We had a new car to work with and it had more potential than we could handle from time to time. Adjusting the power of the car to get the best traction at all times is tricky and sometimes we made it perfectly and other times not. Niclas Andersson in our methanol funny car has completed his first season in the class. It proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Niclas is a well experienced driver and his five European champion titles in Pro Stock helped, but did not do the job alone. We made progress as the events passed and Niclas made it to the final at the FIA event in Hockenheim, Germany.
Our overall impression of the season ? Not too bad, but could have been better.. If it was easy to perform perfect in drag racing some of the thrill would probably be gone.

European Finals at Santa Pod

September 5th 2003: The last round of the FIA European Championship is on at Santa Pod Raceway, England september 5-7th. Qualifications are scheduled for friday-saturday and the big final for this season is on sunday. A lot of action guaranteed! In the top fuel dragster category, where Micke Kågered participate, who will win the championship title is still an open matter. In the methanol funny car class, the title goes to Urs Erbacher from Switzerland, but besides that anything can happen.

Results will be reported continously together with our comments. Eurodragster cover the whole event as close to live as it gets, so check in for details! Nine top fuel dragsters are on site and in the methanol funny car class, ten cars will compete to win the event. We have posted the participants on the results page and starts reporting as soon as the qualifications are on its way. Methanol sessions are scheduled for noon and 16.30. Top fuel dragster has one session friday scheduled to 17.00 local time.
 

Micke took the well deserved win in Norway!

Micke takes the win at Alastaro

The Main Event is on!

May 24th 2003: The Main Event is on its way here at Santa Pod Raceway, England. Qualifications saturday in methanol funny car are scheduled for noon and 3.30 p.m. One top fuel session today at app. 4.30 p.m. (delays may occur due to local rain showers). We publish qualification results on the results page continously. Qualifications continue sunday with two sessions in top fuel and three in methanol funny car. Eliminations are on monday May 26th. In top fuel dragster 8 teams have enterered and in methanol funny car 11 cars compete to get a spot in the 8-cars ladder.
For continous live result reporting and webcam covering the startline area (picture change every 2nd minute), check www.eurodragster.com during the weekend!

Press day

May 21st 2003: We had one car out on the track making appearance before invited media representatives - Niclas Andersson in the methanol funny car. Niclas made two easy passes early in the day to get the feel of the car. The upgrade of his license is almost completed by that and he will be in the starting field for sure in this weekends race. The plan was also for Micke Kågered to make a pass in the top fuel dragster, but rain put an abrupt end to those plans.

Three more days before the Main Event is on its way here at Santa Pod Raceway, England. Parts of team Kågered including our two drivers are on site preparing both race cars for the first major event this weekend. Today we had one car out on the track making appearance before invited media representatives - Niclas Andersson in the methanol funny car. Niclas made two easy passes early in the day to get the feel of the car. The upgrade of his license is almost completed by that and he will be in the starting field for sure in this weekends race. The plan was also for Micke Kågered to make a pass in the top fuel dragster, but rain put an abrupt end to those plans.

The day also included a promotional race between Micke Kågered and UK top fuel driver Andy Carter on behalf of the the organisers and set up for UK´s Channel 4 morning show. The two top fuel pilots were competing in two top of the line pick-up trucks. The outcome? Well.. let´s just say Micke did very well.. As a follow up both Andy and Micke will appear in Channel 4´s friday morning show called Rise as guests.

We have placed the entry list for the coming event on the results page, where we also will start reporting qualification results on saturday May 24th. Qualifications continue sunday and eliminations are on monday May 26th. In top fuel dragster 8 teams are enterered and in methanol funny car 11 cars compete to get a spot in the 8-cars ladder.

Main Event is coming...

May 20th 2003: Four more days to go before the Main Event is on its way here at Santa Pod Raceway, England. Parts of team Kågered including our two drivers are on site preparing both race cars for the first major event. Tomorrow, wednesday (if the weather allows) we will have both cars appearing on the track - Micke Kågered in the top fuel dragster and Niclas Andersson in the methanol funny car. We have placed the entry list for the coming event on the results page, where we also will start reporting qualification results on saturday May 24th. Qualifications continue sunday and eliminations are on monday May 26th. In top fuel 8 teams have enterered and in methanol funny car 11 cars compete to get in the 8-cars ladder.

Test weekend

Shows up the funny car

Season opener - the Easter Thunderball completed..

April 21st 2003: Parts of team Kågered have been in England for the Easter Thunderball Pro Fuel shootout at Santa Pod Raceway April 19-21st. Team Kågered are not too happy with the outcome of the weekend. Initial ignition problems meant Micke missed one session, then the setup of the car was too aggressive to manage the track and he had to shut off rather instatly during both qualification runs. The event have been completed with Smax Smith as the winner and reports from the track have been placed on the results 2003 page.

Season opener - the Easter Thunderball is on..

Stockholm Car Show a success again..

Two more days to go..

April 12th 2003: Stockholm Carshow has so far attracted 143.000 visitors since it opened one week ago. Two more days to go and then the show is over for this time.. "We load everything sunday night and take it to our workshop in Eskilstuna 90 minutes drive from Stockholm", says Micke Kågered. 50% of the team then leaves for England on thursday April 17th, where Micke will enter the Easter Thunderball event in top fuel dragster. Reports from the track will be placed on the results page.

Stockholm Carshow on its way..

April 5th 2003: Team Kågered´s Bahco/Sandflex funny car exposed for the first time at the the Stockholm Car show. The fair is on April 5th-13th and close to 200.000 visitors are expected. Team Kågered is exhibiting at the show together with sponsors Speedglas, Bahco Tools, CRC Industries and Billackeringen Mjölby. More photos have been placed on the latest news page.

New sponsors

Stockholm Motorshow 2003