Ålund and Palos
The story of the weekend has to be the newest, greenest rookie in the class, Thomas Lindström. Thomas only bought the car in February, as a turn-key operation from American Allen Johnson. Thomas knew this was a mid-6 car, but testing in Malmö in April had left them with a damaged diff casing, and runs at the Tierp opening event had resulted in early shutoff runs with terrible tyre shake. And so it was that Thomas came into this event, 10 passes on the car, and 5 of those at only 200m, no passes at all which provided any data. Thomas and part owner/crew chief Roffe’s main hope for the weekend was simply to get down the track in a representative time. They were going to be surprised.
If any team had made any significant changes between Round 1 and this event, they were keeping these to themselves. Qualification began on Friday with 12 of the 14 cars coming around for first qualification
Jimmy Ålund
Friday - Q1
Q1 demonstrates that rookies and old hands alike can get some speed on this track. Number one qualifier positions shifts around in almost every pair, moving from Stefan Eriksson in the first pair, down to Jimmy Ålund in the last pair. Bump spot for Q2 will be at 7.60. We will now see who has learned what on this track. We know Jimmy Ålund has some data and some speed here, so we look forward to finding out who can match or better Jimmy’s times.
Richard Sundblom
Friday - Q2
First run of the weekend for Bo Petterson, who opens his account with a 7.58 that puts him in the top 8. Thomas Lindström improves on this morning’s time (a shaken 14 second early shutoff) and looks delighted with an 8-second pass through shake, but he does make it down the track, and that ticks the box for the team’s first aim of the weekend. In the second pair, Conrad Stanley puts up a creditable 6.9 pass. Stefan Eriksson has a bad burnout, and is then pushed back with some mechanical gremlin. Micke Callin is curiously off the pace, and Jonas Dantanus does not make it up the track on this run, again with mechanical gremlins. At the end of this qualifier, the bump spot is occupied by Ulf Wagnhester at 7.03. But back at the pits I find Ulf packing to leave. Ulf broke a rod on that run, and does not have a spare motor.
Jan Palmqvist
