Unbelievable elimination day at Santa Pod where number #1 Joon and #2 Carter in the championship standings went out already in the quarter finals. That is top fuel racing in a nut shell.. Erbacher advanced from #4 in the point standings and by the win at Santa Pod also took the European championship title in top fuel dragster. Micke out already in the quarter finals, the car malfunctioning big time. A struggle from the first to the last run for Micke this weekend and he was of course not happy with what him and the team achieved. We will post his comments on the season  on our return to Sweden.
 

QUALIFICATION RESULTS Top Fuel Dragster E.T. sec/speed mph	Friday		Saturday
	Session #1	Session #2	Session #3	Session #4
Mikael Kågered	6.40/133	15?	6.88/125	5.39/223
Jöran Persåker	5.17/247	4.96/281	6.32/134	did not run
Urs Erbacher	5.82/§78	did not run	4.84/304	4.76/300
Janne Ahonen	8.36/91	5.67/196	10.46/70	5.56/197
Stig Nergaard	broke	did not run	5.50/224	5.61/234
Andy Carter	4.70/270	5.71/156	6.96/113	4.64/296
Tommi Haapanen	7.71/92	did not run	4.83/298	10.02/80
Thomas Nathås	8.45/86	4.78/311	did not run	10.25/?
Alex Joon	10.45/81	10.08/90	11.38/89	4.99/251

Team Kågered has been trying out a lot of new parts during the qualifications. One broken fuel line and a lot of spinning the tires resulted in Micke ending as number 7 in the 8 car field. Micke comments; "I am not pleased, but we as we decided before this race, we have been trying a lot of new stuff which results in a combination we don´t know much about to start with". He continues ".. new blower, new heads, new type of tires new clutch.. It did not turn out too well and we are happy to be in the elimination  field at all. After the qualifications we are pretty much trying to go back to where we were at Mantorp when the car ran well. As we are up against Urs in the quarter finals, we need to go real quick or have a bit of luck to beat him. We are prepared to take on the task, in top fuel racing anything can happen. Our congrats to team Andy Carter to the new European ET record and we are also impressed with Tommi Haapanen´s performance, his car being really consistent and quick at Mantorp and a 4.83 today place him in the 4th spot up against Persåker (who also did well). Lex Joon had seemingly nerve of steels, struggling with clutch problems and outside the ladder until the last session, a 6th place will put him against Thomas Nathås. The championship title is a matter between Joon and Carter, where Carter in short needs to go two more runs than Joon to win.     
 

For continous live reporting during the event, please visit www.eurodragster.com!
 

VEIDEC Festival
Mantorp Park, Sweden, july 27-29th

ELIMINATION LADDER TOP FUEL DRAGSTER 8-CAR FIELD 
sunday july 29th
 

COMMENTS - Quarter finals: Micke Kågered was out already in the first round of eliminations when the blower belt snapped at half track. Same thing happened for Urs Erbacher just minutes later, but this time right after the start.

Semi-finals: Andy Carter, who qualified as number one and set a new european time raecord during qualifications, experienced engine problems during the semi finals and opponent Thomas Nathås got the sign he was running alone and took it easy.
 
Final: Nathås tyres blazed at 100 feet, the car mad a hard move to the right and Nathås was off the throttle. Joon´s blower belt came off at 1100 feet, but his win with a 4.95 sec was a clear one. Having in mind Joon was not qualified at all until the last session saturday, things could not have turned out much better.   


Qualification results after three runs:

1. Andy Carter (GB) 4.73 sec/492 km
2. Urs Erbacher (CH) 4.80 sec/505 km
3. Lex Joon (NL) 4.81 sec/452 km
4. Mikael Kågered (S) 4.83 sec/467 km
5. Thomas Nathås 4.86 sec/501 km
6. Janne Ahonen (SF) 4.88 sec/443 km
7. Tommi Haapanen (SF) 4.88 sec/476 km
8. Jöran Persåker (S) 5.07 sec/461 km
 

FHRA Nitro Nationals
Alastaro Raceway, Finland, july 6-8th
 

ELIMINATION LADDER TOP FUEL DRAGSTER 8-CAR FIELD 
sunday july 8th

Semifinals and final cancelled due to rain!

NOTES ELIMINATIONS:
Quarter finals
Kågered´s "safe" setup worked out as planned, but did not do the job to beat Andy Carter. Nystad seemingly lost traction, Erbacher´s 4.82 is a new track record, very impressive! Joon took a comfortable win over Persåker as Ahonen did over Nathås. Two cars in the 4´s in the quarter finals, rare for Alastaro but the FHRA crew have done brilliant work with the track to dry it  after all rain. Running the jet dryers seem to have improved the traction as well.  


Team Kågered crew just before a run friday
 

QUALIFICATION RESULTS Top Fuel Dragster E.T. sec/speed mph	Friday		Saturday
	Session #1	Session #2	Session #3	Session #4
Mikael Kågered	21.51/41	5.49/294 blower belt	5.49/313	5.20/422
Jöran Persåker	7.62/186	7.11/199	5.53/?	5.28/404
Urs Erbacher	6.22/244	did not run	5.05/467	did not run
Janne Ahonen	5.36/409	5.33/390	?/202	5.27/424
Sin Nystad	6.95/185	did not run	6.73/199	5.57/333
Andy Carter	6.49/194	?/143	5.29/469	5.17/469
Tommi Haapanen	10.01/127	?/67 blower belt	5.84/420	5.89/334
Thomas Nathås	5.16/414	6.84/198	7.43/169	did not run
Alex Joon	5.50/337	?/218	12.43/110	5.13/394

Comments friday; Team Kågered did get to work hard between round 1 and 2 as we were in for an engine change (we kicked a rod). Second time out at the track the blower belt came off after 300 meters. The run up to that point was looking real good. Micke currently qualified 3rd after Thomas Nathås (5.16) and Janne Ahonen (5.33). Ahonen so far most consistent with two decent runs today. Weather forcast for saturday includes possible rain showers, but three runs are scheduled at approximately 11 am, 3 pm and 6 pm.

Comments friday; The day started witg rain which cleared the area by lunchtime and the rest of the day was really sunny and hot. Last session was the most interesting one as it turned around the order as the pairs were running. Micke improved performance although dropping one cylinder and his elapsed time of 5.20 sec put him in the 5th spot. Quickest in the field Urs Erbacher with 5.05 seconds.

FIA Main Event
Santa Pod Raceway, England, may 26-28th

ELIMINATION LADDER TOP FUEL DRAGSTER 8-CAR FIELD 
monday may 28th

All eliminations were unfortunately cancelled due to rain!
 

QUALIFICATION RESULTS Top Fuel Dragster E.T. sec/speed mph	Saturday		Sunday
	Session #1	Session #2	Session #3	Session #4
Mikael Kågered	6.62/126	8.86/92	cancelled	due to rain
Jöran Persåker	14.38/76	5.69/209
Urs Erbacher	10.28/81	5.57/172
Janne Ahonen	broke	no time shown
Stig Nergaard	no time shown	7.25/108
Andy Carter	no time shown	5.06/314
Tommi Haapanen	no time shown	8.64/86
Thomas Nathås	7.65/97	4.88/310
Alex Joon	9.77/82	4.84/277

Sundays sessions were completely cancelled due to rain which means the above elimination ladder is based on the ranking after two runs instead of four.

Comments saturday: First round out was shaky as so often in top fuel. A majority of the cars experienced tire shakes or did not make full passes for other reasons. In Mickes case the power was shut off half track as a bolt to the crank shaft broke and casued the ignition system to fail. That meant an engine change which was completed just minutes before the deadline for round two, where the modest time for Micke was due to tire spinning (lost traction) mid track. Obviously we are not happy with what we achieved today, the car is excellent from the startline and first part of the track. Hopefully we will get a clean run next run that will better indicate the potential of the car. 

Joon and Nathås currently the leaders of the bunch. Carters fine 5.06 was not a clean run and indicates there is more to expect from his team tomorrow. Weather forecast not good for sunday, so we may be in for delays or interruptions in the time schedule. If eager to follow the latest news please visit www.eurodragster.com - they report live from the control tower.