UEM Top Fuel Bike - Peter Svensson

text provided by team manager Sören Svensson

- Even though a lot different teams complained about the traction, we really didn't have that big problem due to the tuning possibilities that we have on our clutch and our clutch management system, so we would like to give everyone in the crew at Santa Pod a big THANK YOU for the preparation of the track and to everyone else that always makes us feel welcome and for giving us the possibility to run as fast as 5.88 sec on a track with new asphalt at the starting area!

The rest of the track was just as good as always, and there are not many tracks around in Europe or even in the world that can handle all the power that is needed to run 5 second runs on a Top Fuel Bike! If it wouldn't have been for the tricky wind conditions, we might even have managed a back up on that run within the stated 1%.

Don´t miss to read Peter Svensson and team Kendall´s full race report at the Top Fuel Bike Class article page!

Runner-up Top Fuel Bike: Sverre Dahl (Norway) 

Per Bengsston with wife Christina

UEM Super Twin Bike - Per Bengtsson

- The European Finals was very important to us as it would be decisive for the outcome of the championship. As I couldn´t expect any help from anybody I did focus to be Q1 and to win the race, as if I did I knew I would also take the championship title. In the first qualifying round we decided to do a last minute adjusting of the clutch just before we was getting to the start line, as we saw what big problems all the others had. We have never ever done that before, but this was a lucky strike as we due to a lot of wheel spin, anyhow did a 6.60 sec round and by that was Q1.

We had lots of difficulties with settings and other things so didn´t run the second round as we didn't think the ET we had set couldn´t be improved. When Saturday came the track was a bit better so we had tire shakes caused by to less power. Last qualifying round we did put on some more, like 2 % nitro (up to 90%) but went up in smoke at start line. That showed we didn´t have a good tuning for the elimination. But as we consider that it was the track that was wrong and not the bike, we decided to keep those settings in to the first round. We did soft up the clutch and the ignition a bit. All team members were very nervous, but I believed in the track so I was cool. And when we then did 6.49 sec it showed we was right and after that we followed with the 6.40 sec it was right all the way, not just a one-shot. At that point the title was ours so we went for a speed record. And we did a new personal best at 60 ft 1.07 and on the throttle 2,1 sec, but then the chain left the sprocket, it wasn´t broken. We had lots of highlights this weekend.  We made the 3 fastest runs at the weekend, beat three continents in the final Europe (Finland) / Australia and Canada and made the fastest ET of the season! To be part of the best Super Twin race ever in Europe (and the world!) and to be able to win is a great feeling and I know for sure the reason is that I have the best team on the globe!

Runner-up Super Twin Bike: Ronny Aasen (Norway)

Runner-up Pro Stock Bike: Kalle Lyrén (Sweden)


King of Nitro - Urs Erbacher

FIA Top Fuel Dragster - Urs Erbacher
After Hockenheim we know everything is possible and the postion to win the championship was better for us than last year. First the shock when we was testing at Wednesday and found out that the track has a new surface on the start line on both sides. Then we try to make a test rund but we need to shut down after the burn out we can not shift back to the forward gear.

Runner-up Top Fuel Dragster: Risto Poutiainen (Finland)


Check out the action and results class by class under separate headlines in this edition!

In the next edition we meet the champions and check what they have to tell after some time have passed since their last runs at the European Finals

 
Timo Habermann

FIA Top Methanol Dragster – Timo Habermann

- We really had a great weekend in Santa Pod and the European Finals started well for us when we made a test run on wednesday with Dennis. He ran a 5,45 out of the trailer on a very bad track which showed us that we found our problem that we have had the complete season on Dennis car.

Runner-up Top Methanol Dragster: Fred Hanssen (Norway)


Rob Turner

FIA Top Methanol Funny Car - Rob Turner

text provided by team manager Carmel Turner

- We only raced at two events previous to the finals this season, as we didn’t have enough money to go to Sweden and Finland, earlier in the year.  All we hoped for at the finals was to try and run quicker than we had ever run before, and prayed  that we would break into the “5 second club, and to make the weekend perfect to win the 1st round, we just wanted to go further than we had gone before with our Funny Car.

Rob is now happy driving the Funny Car, and in fact he said to us, “I love driving the Car”. Carmel, asked Rob at the beginning of the year, “what do you want to drive this year, the Dragster or the Funny Car?” He replied with no hesitation, “the Funny Car, I love it!”.

The finals started off perfectly for us, on our 1st qualifying run we ran the 5.98! and made British history in drag racing.  We were all “over the moon” to see a 5 come up on the board.  As he went up the track I Carmel, remember thinking, this is going to be a 5, it looks a nice run, down the middle of the track, and the engine sounds really happy.   Everyone in the team cheered, as the time came up and to have achieved this at our home track “Santa Pod”.

We then continued throughout the qualifying sessions, going even quicker!  5.87 was our final time which placed us No. 3 in the ladder.  After each run, as we always do, checked the motor, downloaded the onboard computer data and went into the eliminations very content with our qualifying position and looked forward to competing against Deszoe Krivan in the first round.

Having chosen the right lane for our race, we felt confident and eagerly awaited the race to see if we could, at last, win a round and go into the semi’s.  Once again, we all watched Rob take the win, with another personal best 5.85.  

Back at the pits we checked the motor, looked at the computer, and decided on the tune up against Jarmo.  Our Funny Car, ‘Monte’ as we lovingly call it, rose to the challenge again, with Rob proving to be well at home in driving the car with complete confidence.   This time we ran even quicker 5.83, taking the win and proudly going into the final against Ulf Leanders, the newly crowned European Champion. We have never raced Ulf before, he didn’t race his car last season, and as we had only competed at two previous meetings this year, this was our first race against him. 

Having once again, lane choice, we chose the right lane, burned out and Rob confidently brought ‘Monte’ into stage.  Steve went on the race radio and told Rob what rpm to leave at and we all concentrated on the lights as  the tree lit up green.  Rob left the line before Ulf and we all could see Rob was so focused on trying to keep the car in the middle, shift at the appropriate time, and seeing that he also had tyre shake this round, had to really fight with the car, and as he didn’t lift off the throttle, and kept his foot in and ran down the side of the track, about 6” from the wall, took the win with great confidence as a driver in Funny Car.  We all jumped, screamed, and cheered at the win light in our lane 5.80.  What a way to finish the year, it was like a perfect dream, a win with our beautiful Funny Car, which has now given us much self-belief to go into next year, to try for the Championship.

We would like to thank all our sponsors who have supported us this season; Lucas Oil, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Rods, Goodridge Hoses, and G Max fuels.

To finish the season on a high by winning at Santa Pod, running 5 personal best times and knowing our motor is very happy with the tune up Steve’s set up, is awesome.  Roll on 2012!

FIA Pro Modified - Urban Johansson

- It was a heavy Monday after all celebrating, but now we're in the routines again. For me and my crew this event was very good, everything worked fine due to some hard work between the rounds.
We think the track conditions was miserable all weekend, it was changing all the time and it’s a quite bumpy track. It was hard to get the right set up and we had to change a lot of things on the car to get it down the track each round. Suspension, clutch and power needed to be changed to get the car go down. We suffered a lot of tire shake (almost every run) and I had to pedal a lot, and we were not alone, almost every racecar down the track had to pedal.

I saw Johan's red-light in the Final, but decided to go for it anyway for the audience, but we burned the third gear in the transmission so I shut off early. Next year's plan is not yet decided so you’ll just have to wait and see. Have to be a surprise. The highlight this weekend was to win the shootout and the event, of course. The highlight of the whole season is to have been able to work together with my great team. So I give them a huge thank You!

FIA Pro Stock - Richard Sundblom

- The track definitely didn´t have the standard that we're use to and treated with from earlier events. But we managed to race constant rounds the whole weekend although we had some complications. One thing we had to do was to "soften up" the whole car, so the final round we had to race with a too loose clutch from start to finish line.

Thanks to the track conditions we broke our number 1 engine on Friday and had to use engine number two, that we had in the trailer, all weekend. That engine was not tested at all and it was very hectic and we had to do the settings without any data. The bad track made us drive in a complete different way and settings then we usually does, but we did work that out quite good during the circumstances. Thanks to the great team that made it possible.  We have nothing set until next season, but there are visions that will be cleared out during the off season. The highlight this weekend was of course to beat Jimmy Ålund in the semis and to win the European Finals. And most of all to go from 5^th place in the Championship to Runner Up!

The highlight of the season was definitely to race at Tierp Arena. A marvelous investment and a big step forward for European dragracing and to be one of the first Finnish teams to race at the track was unbelievable.

Finally I want to thank all the team: Kimmo Kokko, Risto Koskinen, Ronny Lindström, Jari Kujala, B.J. Andersson, Kari Jalonen and my family, and also everybody else that are involved in our racing, special our sponsors for the season. Thank You all!