The opening day at the Sweden Internationals, Thursday, was dedicated to sportsman racing on the fantastic new Tierp Arena track. At this race, all classes beside some of the Jr Dragster teams were pitted on the blacktop and conditions everywhere were the best possible.


Bader winner in BILSPORT Pro Mod at Tierp

Pro Modified, which is the biggest FIA Championship class also forms a part of the NDRS Drag Racing Series and the event in Tierp was the fourth NDRS race for the class. Following its conclusion, Mikael Lindahl now leads the NDRS series.


Mathias Stenström - Comp eliminator winner

Competition Eliminator included everything from nostalgia altereds to up-to-date turbo fours. Risto Virtala, low qualifier of the 23 contenders, had a bye-run in the first round but was eliminated in round two by Stig Olsson. Stig, in his green slingshot dragster, made his way to the semi-final where he had to wait for Kim Andersen, who had start-up problems. The wait lasted too long, forcing Stig to shut off. Then Kim failed to reach the finish, giving No. 2 qualifier Mathias Stenström a bye-run in the final. Mathias now ranks No. 1 in the NDRS series.


Håkan Nordström Stock/Super Stock

Stock/Super Stock had an impressive field, just managing to fill a 32-car ladder. Håkan Nordström qualified No. 1 at -0.8465sec under the index and also won the event, eventually putting Björn “the Peasant” Bondesson on the trailer in the final. As many as five cars, among them No. 2 qualifier Uffe Edwardsson and rookie Tomas Kaakinen in his unique Challenger , failed to show up for eliminations, owing to various problems. Nordström, Tarmo Mikkola and Bondesson are the top three in the NDRS series.


Bosse Ragnebro winner Super Comp

Super Comp produced 27 qualifiers, with Johan Klahr in the No. 1 spot (8.902) ahead of eventual winner Bosse Ragnebro, who beat NDRS 2010 runner-up Niklas Öhlin in the final. Bosse clocked 8.900 in the final making it hard for Niklas to reply. The other semi-finalists were veteran Mikael Nilsson and 18-year-old rookie Johanna Granholm. Now only a nine-point gap separates Ragnebro and Öhlin at the top of the NDRS series.

Håkan Mattsson won Super Gas

Super Gas filled a 16-car ladder with last year’s champion, Christer Uhlin, as low qualifier with a 9.908 ET, but he broke out in the first round. The same happened to No. 2 qualifier Bosse Hall in his wheelstanding yellow Anglia. Legendary former Bilsport Magazine journalist Anders “Bostic” Envall gave a guest performance this weekend in his black Impala SS (without caravan). Appearing in the final were Håkan Mattsson, who beat Olav Skervjö on his side of the ladder, and Mats Karlsson, who defeated Janne Norén in the other semi-final. “Strawhat” Mattsson won with a better reaction-time and now leads the NDRS series.


Janne Karlsson won Super Street

Super Street also provided the exact number of cars for a full 16-car ladder. Qualifying was a real thriller with the top eight under 10.92. Surprisingly, the four quickest ran without throttle-stops. Bracket-racer Mauri Kamppinen had qualified No. 1 but was defeated in the second round by Simon Gustafsson, who then eliminated Tomas Hägg on his way to the final. On the other side, veteran driver and Micke Gullqvist team-member Janne Karlsson, in his beautiful ´65 Nova, took three scalps, among them Ulf Skytte in the semi-final. Janne made the best preparations and won with a 10.91 to Simon’s 10.97. Simon holds a substantial lead in the NDRS series.


Iiro Laaksonen Jr Dragster

Jr Dragster had 27 competitors, representing five flags. In first spot was Johanna Carlsson with a 0.0017 reaction time. Eight qualified at under 0.010. Joe Kellett , GB, who won the SDL event at Lindesberg last week, went out in the semi-final against the future runner-up, Kevin Danielsson (Åland) in his last (?) race in a Jr Dragster. From the other side of the ladder came Iiro Laaksonen, who won the race after Kevin´s break-out. Liiro occupies first place in NDRS before racing in his own country this coming weekend.


Asplund winner in Super Twin Top Gas

Super Twin Top Gas Bike contained just three competitors and No. 1 qualifier Anna Lena Asplund (7.8963) was the only one to make it into eliminations, where she improved her ET to 7.858.

Super Gas Bike had a strong 28-bike ladder with Ulf Fridolfsson in top spot at 9.52 on the 9.50 index. There were several fast bikes in the class, some capable of ET´s more than 1.5sec quicker than the index. At the end only Tommy Jonsson and Robert Pettersson remained for the final. The winner, Tommy Jonsson, now lies fourth in the NDRS series. The leader is Björn Holmberg.



Check the links to the point standings and elimination ladders class by class below each photo of the winner and runner-up!